Padilla ruled fit for terrorism trial

A sketch of Jose Padilla (C) appearing at a courthouse in Miami, January 6, 2006. Former ''enemy combatant'' Padilla cannot get a fair trial on terrorism charges because years of secret interrogation damaged his brain, his lawyer told a U.S. judge on Wednesday, while prosecutors insisted that was untrue.

MIAMI (Reuters) - Former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla is mentally competent to stand trial on terrorism charges, a U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday.

The 36-year-old American is scheduled to go to trial on April 16 on charges that he aided Islamist extremists and conspired with them to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas.

His lawyers argued that years of secret detention and interrogation by the U.S. military left him mentally impaired.

U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Cooke said Padilla had paid attention in court, had discussed some of the legal maneuvering with doctors who examined him and had been able to give his attorneys at least some information about his detention at a U.S. military brig.

"This defendant clearly has the capacity to assist his attorneys," Cooke said.

Cooke did not address whether Padilla's detention without charges, or his treatment during interrogation, constituted "outrageous conduct" that would merit dismissal of the charges, as argued by his lawyers.

"That discussion is for another day," she said.

Padilla has been in federal custody since May 2002, when he was arrested in Chicago upon his return from Egypt and Pakistan. President George W. Bush ordered him held in military custody and his administration accused Padilla of plotting to set off a radioactive bomb.

Padilla was never charged with that and while a challenge to Bush's authority to hold him without charge was pending in the Supreme Court, Padilla was indicted in Florida and transferred to civilian custody last year.