“Yes.”
“The inner circle of the Knights of the Temple Mount linked Gilead with Ani?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“And Ani was a ‘chancellor,’ a high-ranking ruler in the court of the pharaoh?”
“That is true.”
“So the inner circle of the Knights must have considered the accused part of their leadership structure—right?”
Dr. al-Qasr saw the dire implications of the question.
“I am afraid that would be a logical deduction from the picture, yes.”
Zayed did a little wave with his hands and left the podium. Will had anticipated the question and the witness’s answer. It had been a calculated risk. But the expressions on the faces of the three judges indicated that his ploy in having al-Qasr refer to the picture might have backfired. In the next few minutes he was about to find out.
“In the picture, the character Anubis, who is crouching under the scales,” Will began, “he is reaching up and touching something in the center of the scales. What is he doing?”
“He is manipulating the adjusting screw at the center of the balance scales.”
“What happens if the adjustment is set improperly?”
“You get a false balance.”
“And Yossin Ali Khalid is the one in this picture doing the adjusting—determining, in effect, the outcome?”
“Yes. That would be correct.”
“The part played by Khalid in the picture indicates he is the one who can tip the scales—make the heart of Gilead Amahn come out looking one way or another. In other words, Khalid had the power to create the illusion that Gilead was even the reincarnation of the last Caliph, the promised messiah of the Knights’ secret theology—and without Gilead even knowing it. Doesn’t this picture, through Khalid’s own notes, show us that?”
But there was no way that the prosecutor would let that stand, and he jumped up and objected that the question assumed a knowledge of the state of mind of Khalid, and also improperly sought an opinion as to the ultimate issues in the case.
Mustafa granted the objection. Judges Lee and Verdexler, in their silence, concurred.
Zayed returned for a short re-cross.
“Are you a Muslim?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Are you a good Muslim?”
Before Will could raise an objection, Zayed clarified.
“By that I mean—have you, in your scholarly writings, criticized some of the muftis and other teachers of Islam regarding the importance of Muslims retaining complete control of the Noble Sanctuary—regarding certain rulings of the Waqf, the Muslim Trust that has authority over the so-called Temple Mount. And as a result, you have been barred from the Noble Sanctuary and have been excluded from certain Islamic conferences—all of that is true?”
Al-Qasr, visibly uncomfortable, was trying to manage a smile.
“Yes…all of what you say is correct. But there are other Islamic scholars who have taken up my side of this…”
“You have been called an infidel by many Islamic leaders?”
“Yes. I am no infidel…but they have called me that.”
“And so, having been called an infidel, an enemy to Islam, you take up the defense of Hassan Gilead Amahn, accused of conspiring to destroy the holy place and holy people of Islam?”
The witness was no longer smiling. He glanced down and answered in a quiet voice, nearly inaudible.
“I have been called as a witness for the defense. That much is true…”
Will tried to read the faces of the judges, but only one of them was obvious.
Judge Mustafa was visibly scowling at al-Qasr as he walked out of the witness booth.
65
IN THE JUDGMENT OF WILL CHAMBERS and Nigel Newhouse, Dr. al-Qasr’s testimony had been close to a zero-sum game. On one hand, they were thankful that his expert opinions had likely raised more questions in the minds of the judges about Scott Magnit’s credibility and about whether Gilead had actually been an unwitting pawn in Yossin Ali Khalid’s barbaric theology of destruction. Yet they also realized his testimony was less than compelling—particularly because he had admitted that Khalid’s jottings on the ancient Egyptian picture could be interpreted as proof that Gilead was within the leadership circle of the Knights.
The two attorneys, joined by Tiny, discussed that and other issues over a carry-out Italian dinner they ate in their temporary office. Mira had been barred from their meetings—and for his part, Tiny had no doubt that Will’s deductions were correct—that Mira had been recruited by Mullburn to spy on Gilead’s defense team. But Nigel was less sure, wondering what the billionaire had to gain by such an audacious act of legal espionage.
Will’s only explanation was that Mullburn wanted to find out how close they were getting to the golden vein underneath all those layers of rock and soil—to the buried “mother lode”—the evidence that Mullburn had personally orchestrated the bombings to create massive instability in the peace negotiations. Then, Will contended, Mullburn could step in as a supposedly neutral “mediator.” What no one else understood, Will continued, was that Mullburn alone possessed the politically damaging information he would try to use to blackmail Israel.
“Information…like what?” Nigel asked, taking a few last bites of his rigatoni al profumo di mare.
“He had Orville Putrie break in to the Mossad computer logs. There were surveillance records showing that Israeli intelligence was keeping an eye on the Knights prior to the bombings.”
“A bit politically embarrassing, perhaps,” Nigel remarked, “but not enough to force major concessions from Israel in return for Mullburn’s keeping it quiet.”
“That’s why he needed to up the ante,” Will continued. “He had Putrie add some incriminating text, making it look like the Mossad was deliberately standing down in order to permit the Knights to attack the Mount.”
The barrister was deep in thought, but remained unconvinced.
“The kind of plot you are describing is contemptible…so complex and so brilliantly arrogant that I find it hard to believe. Mullburn may be a genius of sorts—bold, aggressive, perhaps even ruthless—but if I’m finding it a rather bitter pill to swallow, then how are you ever going to convince the tribunal? Really, are you able to present unimpeachable evidence substantiating all of this?”
Will glanced over at Tiny, who was smiling to himself.
“I hope so,” Will replied.
Nigel could see he was being excluded. As an accomplished barrister, this was the first case where his lead trial counsel had deliberately kept him out of the loop. The American attorney had assured him it had to be that way. The fact that the barrister accepted it in good faith was a testament not only to Will’s leadership but to Nigel’s teamsmanship as well.
But as they concluded for the night, all three of them agreed on one thing. They had all observed Gilead’s demeanor during the trial. He was deteriorating, looking increasingly forlorn and abandoned. No amount of encouragement from the defense team seemed to buoy him.
It was as if he had already begun visualizing himself on the table, strapped down, IVs connected…with nothing to do but count the minutes before the lethal injection was administered. It was heartbreaking—and from a strategic standpoint it could be a crippling problem. Gilead had yet to testify. He needed to tell his story incisively and with bold confidence. Whether he would be able to do that now seemed to be in grave doubt.
Will only hoped that the fact that Bill and Esther Collingwood had finally arrived and waded through the paperwork and background checks so they could sit in the courtroom would lift Gilead’s spirits. Will had shared that with his client, but the young man had managed only a weak smile in response.
Now, Will and Nigel could only look to the next day for some solid signs that the course of the trial was turning their way. They were cautiously optimistic that they would win several central points during the upcoming testimony.
But they we
re to be bitterly disappointed.
They had subpoenaed Farousha Ali Khalid, the submissive wife of Yossin Ali Khalid, to testify. She was to be questioned on the many covert meetings in their apartment between her husband, Louis Lorraine, and Scott Magnit, where the attack on the Temple Mount was discussed. Will fully expected Farousha to deny that Gilead had been present at any of those meetings.
But she never uttered a word on that subject. She answered only a qualifying question, put to her by the prosecution in an attempt to block her testimony.
“You understand that under our rules of procedure,” Zayed asked, “you have the right of marital privilege to refrain from giving any testimony that might be considered offensive to the interests of your late husband?”
“I do,” she answered quietly in Arabic.
“Do you claim that privilege—and do you refuse to testify?”
She looked down. “I do refuse.”
Will objected to the ploy by the Palestinian prosecutor, arguing that he “had stretched the marital privilege beyond the point of any legal recognition,” particularly because it was Gilead—not Farousha’s husband—who was on trial. Judge Lee seemed mildly inclined toward Will’s position, but in the end Judge Verdexler and Mustafa forged a majority to overrule his objection, effortlessly sidestepping the fifteen pages of argument Will had filed that morning on that exact point of evidence.
Farousha Ali Khalid, the only living witness to the meetings of the inner circle of the Knights other than Scott Magnit, was excused by the tribunal. She quickly exited the glass booth and scurried out of the courtroom, having never commented on the conspiracy that lay at the heart of Gilead’s trial.
As his next witness, Will called Dr. Edward Tyrone, a history and religion professor at Southern Methodist University. With a PhD in history and an MDiv in theology, Tyrone was an undisputed expert on the history of evangelical Protestantism, having written numerous articles and books on the subject. He had reviewed the record in the case and interviewed those who knew Gilead’s theological beliefs before he left for Cairo, including members of the Rolling River Bible Tabernacle in West Virginia. He had also reviewed the records of the Israeli police, which described much of Gilead’s final sermon in Jerusalem just seconds before the blast shook the Temple Mount. Tyrone was prepared to testify that Gilead’s theological leanings were perfectly consistent with mainline evangelicalism—and dramatically at odds with the theological position of the Knights of the Temple Mount.
And that is exactly what he would have indicated to the tribunal—had he been permitted to give his opinions. But immediately after Will had had Tyrone describe his educational and professional credentials, Samir Zayed rose to his feet and moved the court to bar the professor from testifying.
“What the accused may have believed in his mind about religion,” the prosecutor argued, “prior to his trip to Cairo, where he chose to play the part of the Caliph al-Hakim—or prior to the bombing—these things are irrelevant to this case. The accused is not being charged with religious heresy—he is charged with being part of a plan to commit mass murder against Muslims. His actions, not his beliefs, are on trial.”
It was difficult for Will to maintain his composure during counterargument. “This is absurd,” he stated forcefully. “The prosecution wants it both ways. They want to try my client for being part of a religiously motivated bombing—yet they would deny me the right to show what my client’s religious beliefs really were. As a believer in Jesus Christ, Gilead Amahn would never deliberately destroy innocent human life. And as a Bible-believing Christian, he simply would never have knowingly joined this dangerous, theologically confused religious cult—if they had clearly explained what they really believed. Mr. Zayed’s argument insults the intelligence—and the judicial integrity—of this tribunal.”
Judge Verdexler lashed out first, suggesting that Will Chambers was the one who was insulting the integrity of the court, not the prosecutor. “You are telling us, Mr. Chambers, that if we don’t see things your way, we are either fools or we are corrupt.”
But before the attorney could respond, Judge Mustafa joined in the fray, adding his admonition and reminding Will that he had been “previously warned against your self-righteous Christian preaching to this tribunal.”
With an uncharacteristic degree of emotion in his voice, Judge Lee voiced concern about the fairness of the majority’s ruling. But Verdexler and Mustafa were not swayed. The positions of the judges were now falling into a recognizable pattern. And as Will saw it, he was consistently one vote short.
Larry Lancer next testified as a fact witness, and was mildly helpful to the defense. Under Nigel Newhouse’s questioning, he described how, in the year prior to the bombing, Gilead had visited his office at the headquarters of the Holy Land Institute for the Word. Lancer had known of Gilead’s adoptive parents and their mission work in Egypt and had discussed the evangelistic mission of his institute with the young man. Gilead had taken some literature, but had never returned and never called back. The impression Lancer had was “that Gilead was a normal evangelical Christian man, who was considering doing some evangelistic work in Israel…there was nothing in our conversation that gave me any concern about the orthodoxy of his theology.”
With that last comment, both Will and Nigel felt they had recovered some small amount of ground that had been lost when Dr. Tyrone had been prevented from testifying.
However, in cross-examination, Lancer admitted a deep sympathy toward Gilead’s plight—and he admitted that a wealthy supporter of his ministry had been paying, through his institute, all of Gilead’s legal fees and expenses. Further, Lancer had to concede that his institute was providing free office space to Gilead’s defense team. As the two attorneys sized it up, if the tribunal wanted to look for reasons to discredit Lancer for obvious bias in favor of Gilead, it wouldn’t have to look very far.
The last defense witness of the day was a young woman with long blond hair named Susan Solomon. Will led her through the questioning. Solomon’s parents, who lived in a religious community outside of Jerusalem, were orthodox Jews. However, she had found herself searching for her own individual spiritual road. So when she heard about a “nondenominational Bible-study group” that was meeting just beyond the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, she decided to attend.
Solomon recalled meeting Gilead in a crowded upper room in an empty apartment…and how she had asked him questions about the Old Testament versus the New Testament.
“What did he tell you?” Will asked.
“That a relationship with God wasn’t about rules, exactly. It was about God’s grace. And he went on to say he felt God had led me to that meeting.”
“I have shown you pictures of Yossin Ali Khalid and Louis Lorraine. Did you see them there that night?”
“I did. At one point they left and went downstairs.”
“Did they take Gilead with them?”
“No. Mr. Amahn was still answering some questions I had.”
“When did you leave the room?”
“A few minutes later, I decided to take a break…go outside and smoke a cigarette. When I got to the top of the stairway to go down, I saw them—that Lorraine guy talking with Mr. Khalid. They were just outside on the street level…the door where they were was sort of half-open.”
“As you stood at the top of the stairs, could you hear them?”
“Sort of…I did hear Khalid say they shouldn’t force some question to Mr. Amahn. Lorraine wanted to ask Mr. Amahn something about himself, but Khalid said no, not to do that…”
“Did they say anything else?”
“Well, that Khalid guy said he was keeping his eye on a girl with a backpack—and I was sure he was talking about me. It was a little creepy, because all of a sudden I got the feeling he was trying to recruit me for some religious group—and I really wasn’t into that. So I hurried down the stairs and walked right past them. Khalid saw me hit the street, and he called after me…but I just kind of
kept walking.”
“Did Gilead Amahn, in any of his statements to you, talk about the Knights of the Temple Mount?”
“No. Never heard of them till after the bombing.”
“Were Gilead’s statements about God—did they strike you as being Christian in nature?”
After a moment’s reflection, Solomon said, “I’m not sure. I’m not that much into Christianity per se. I did think that some of the things he said made some sense…you know, got me thinking. But then I was totally bummed out by what I overheard from Khalid about his trying to target me for his group.”
Zayed was friendly and warm as he questioned the witness.
“In response to Mr. Chambers’ questions, you said that you ‘sort of ’ heard Khalid and Lorraine—those were your words—‘sort of ’ heard them.”
“Yeah.”
“But didn’t hear very well?”
“Some things I heard. The things I described already.”
“Good. Thank you. That’s what I meant. Okay—but some things they were discussing you didn’t hear. Right?”
“I guess.”
“Right before you left the room and got to the top of the stairs—whatever they were discussing then down on the street you could not have heard. True?”
“That’s probably right.”
“And if they were saying, for instance, that Gilead Amahn was part of a plan to destroy the Temple Mount…that his job would be to give the signal for the bombing—”
“Hey, wait a minute—”
Will looked up from his notes. There was a look of surprised recollection on Solomon’s face. Then she explained.
“I just remembered. Khalid did mention a signal.”
“Did he say that the accused, Mr. Amahn, would give the signal?”
“He may have…I’m not sure.”
“You must be sure. Didn’t he say that the accused would give the signal for the bombing—”
“No—nothing about a bombing. Believe me, I would have remembered that. He just said, like, ‘he will give us the signal’…something like that.”
“Hassan Gilead Amahn would give the signal…”
The Last Judgment Page 34