Trial Again Delayed in Plot to Kill Saudi Envoy

By COLIN MOYNIHAN

The trial of Mansour J. Arbabsiar, an Iranian-American man accused of plotting to kill a Saudi ambassador, has been delayed once again, a federal judge said on Thursday, adding that he was concerned that the case was moving too slowly.

“I want this case to go to trial,” said the judge, John F. Keenan, of Federal District Court in Manhattan. “All that seems to happen here is every time I come to court somebody wants to adjourn it.”

Mr. Arbabsiar, a former used car salesman from Texas, has been charged with participating in a plot organized by the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards that was said to have involved hiring members of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States.

Judge Keenan said in February that he wanted the proceedings to move swiftly and he set a trial date of Oct. 22. Although Mr. Arbabsiar was arrested on S ept. 29, 2011, at Kennedy International Airport, he did not appear before a judge or speak with a lawyer for almost two weeks, until Oct. 11.

Prosecutors and the defense have signaled that Mr. Arbabsiar's mental state while undergoing 12 days of interrogation will be important in the case, with experts from each side weighing in.

Prosecutors said Mr. Arbabsiar had confessed to participating in the plot while “knowingly and voluntarily” waiving his rights to remain silent, to consult with a lawyer and to be quickly taken before a judge.

But Mr. Arbabsiar's lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, said she planned to ask for a hearing to examine whether Mr. Arbabsiar had freely consented to speak without a lawyer by his side. Last month she asked Judge Keenan to order the suppression of statements Mr. Arbarbsiar made during interrogation, citing the opinion of experts who said that he was suffering from serious mental illness.

In court on Thursday Judge Keenan sai d prosecutors had written a letter asking for an adjournment of that hearing, scheduled for Sept. 6, so their experts could meet with the defendant.

Explaining that he wanted to maintain the Oct. 22 trial date, Judge Keenan suggested that the hearing be held on Oct. 9. But Ms. Shroff said that schedule would be a problem because the government had given her new evidence on Wednesday night - a dense 21-page report that appeared to be from an unidentified doctor or a psychologist - that would most likely require the interpretation of yet another expert.

“It's a document that I cannot possibly understand,” she said, adding that the prosecution might also find the document difficult to comprehend.

After examining the document for a few minutes, Judge Keenan asked an assistant United States attorney, Glen Kopp, who had written it. Mr. Kopp replied that it had been written by Dr. Susan Brandon.

Officials would not provide any information about Dr. Bra ndon.

The Web site of the American Psychology-Law Society provides a link to a page for a 2012 meeting that identified a conference speaker, Susan E. Brandon, as chief of research for the High Value Detainee Interrogation Group, an interagency group created through an executive order, and said she had also been connected to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Department of Defense.