Woman Accused of Iraq Ties Is Ruled Unfit for Trial Again

Woman Accused of Iraq Ties Is Ruled Unfit for Trial Again
By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: September 16, 2008
A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that Susan P. Lindauer, a former journalist and Congressional aide who was accused of working with Iraqi intelligence before the war, is still mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Ms. Lindauer, who had been declared incompetent for trial by Judge Michael B. Mukasey, now the United States attorney general, tried to persuade a different judge that she was now competent.

But the second judge, Loretta A. Preska of Federal District Court, ruled late Monday that while Ms. Lindauer was “highly intelligent” and “generally capable of functioning at a high level in many ways,” she also was suffering from a mental disease or defect.

As a result, the judge said, Ms. Lindauer was “unable to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against her or to assist properly in her defense.”

Ms. Lindauer, 45, pleaded not guilty to the charges against her, which include acting as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein’s government and engaging in illegal financial transactions with the Iraqi government.

Ms. Lindauer, who lives in a Washington suburb and remains free on bond, said by phone on Tuesday: “I am disgusted and horrified by the decision. The right to a trial is fundamental in a democracy. I have been fighting for a trial because I am innocent and I believe I have the right to prove my innocence.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/17/nyregion/17lindauer.html?ref=nyregion