Abdel Hameed Shehadeh Trial: Lawyer Hopes To Exclude Jews From Jury In Terrorism Trial

The lawyer for an accused terrorist is reportedly planning to ask a judge to exclude Jews from the jury Monday.

The New York Post reports Abdel Hameed Shehadeh's attorney, Frederick Cohn, first broached the possibility of such a request at an earlier court hearing.

"Your Honor...as you know, I’m not wild about having Jews on the jury in this case," Cohn told a judge in February. "Given that there’s going to be inflammatory testimony about Jews and Zionism, I think it would be hard for Jews to cast aside any innate antipathy. The American Jewish community is heavily aligned with Israel and Zionism. Here is a guy who is a Muslim, who is opposed to those things."

Prosecutors argued that it would be unconstitutional to bar someone from serving on a jury due to their religion.

Shehadeh is accused of lying to federal authorities about his intentions join the Taliban during a 2008 trip to Pakistan.

Shehadeh is originally from Staten Island, but later became a resident of Hawaii.

While in Staten Island, he devised a plan to enter Pakistan to join the terrorist group, according to the FBI, but was denied entry.

After his 2010 arrest, he reportedly implicated himself by saying that if he died as a martyr in Pakistan he would have received 72 virgins as a reward.