[JURIST] The prosecution in the Jose Padilla [JURIST news archive] terrorism conspiracy case rested Friday after nine weeks of presenting witness testimony and wiretap evidence [JURIST report] to jurors. The final witness for the prosecution, an FBI linguist, testified that the name and telephone number of Padilla co-defendant Adham Amin Hassoun [GlobalSecurity profile] were in Padilla's possession when he was arrested. The linguist also testified that notations made on checks from Hassoun to various Muslim charities mentioned "tourism" or support for "brothers." The prosecutors argued that "tourism" is code for terrorist attacks and that the "brothers" the money was to support were members of the mujahideen [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Next week the defense will begin to present its case, which will likely continue into August.

Padilla, Hassoun and a third co-defendant, Kifah Wael Jayyousi [GlobalSecurity profile], are charged [JURIST report] with being a part of an Islamic fundamentalist terrorist support network and conspiring to murder US nationals. Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and subsequently detained as an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] at a Navy military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Initially accused of planning to set off a "dirty bomb" in the United States, Padilla went from enemy combatant to criminal defendant when he was finally charged with other offenses in November 2005. AP has more.