(Bloomberg) -- U.S. customs agents can demand access to travelers' mobile phones to see if they might pose a terrorist risk, a federal prosecutor said.
That assertion is being challenged by a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who says his rights were violated at a Miami airport when U.S. officials demanded he provide his passwords for his iPhone and iPad prior to his detention on charges he helped violate international sanctions against Iran.
The officials have every right to check whether a traveler might have “an ISIS flag” on the device's screen saver, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard told a judge in Manhattan, referring to Islamic State -- the terror group that seized territory in Syria and Iraq.
Reza Zarrab, the gold trader, is accused of using a web of companies to induce U.S. banks to launder hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions that violated the sanctions on Iran. His lawyers urged the judge to bar the U.S. from using evidence obtained from the search of the phone and tablet in his trial. Separately, Zarrab asked that all charges be dismissed.
Lockard compared the search Zarrab faced to a border agent asking for the keys to a passenger's locked suitcase or a police officer making a traffic stop requesting a driver's identification.
"He was at passport control and nothing about being asked about the passcode to his iPhone changes all of that," Lockard said.
‘Absurd' Argument
Benjamin Brafman, one of Zarrab's lawyers, called the prosecutor's argument "absurd."
"They're flat out wrong," Brafman said. "If a police officer stops you he does not have the right to ask you for the password to your iPhone to find out if you're a member of ISIS."
Paul Clement, another of Zarrab's lawyers, argued that his client faced an "unprecedented" prosecution. The government "overreached" by attempting to prosecute a person for violations that were only applicable to U.S. nationals, he said. Defense lawyers have said Zarrab, who was born in Iran but later moved to Turkey, believed that his Turkish-based business hadn't violated U.S. law.
Zarrab said he gave the border guards the passcode to his iPhone and iPad "feeling that I had no choice" and just before he was advised of his rights to consult with a defense lawyer. He's been in U.S. custody since his March arrest.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan didn't immediately rule on the lawyers' requests. On Aug. 29, the judge declined to step down from the case on the grounds he had participated in a legal conference in Istanbul in 2014.
The case is U.S. v. Zarrab, 15-cr-867, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Patricia Hurtado in Federal Court in Manhattan at pathurtado@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider, Sophia Pearson
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