SALT LAKE CITY — Saying there was no evidence they were tied to an explosive device planted underneath a FOX 13 News vehicle, a judge on Tuesday ordered a father and son released from jail.
However, Adeeb Nasir, 58, and his 31-year-old son, Adil Nasir, are still charged with crimes. Third District Judge Mark Kouris ordered the pair to have no contact with each other while they await trial.
“I don’t believe the crime that is spoken about with the FOX 13 stuff, I don’t think that really has anything to do with this case,” Kouris said, after hearing from both the defense and the prosecution, “and the fact that the two were mixed together is a mystery in my opinion.” The Nasirs have been in the Salt Lake County jail for a month. On Sept. 12, a gas can with a fuse was discovered under a marked FOX 13 vehicle.
A jail document says the FBI tracked suspects to the Nasir house in Magna, though the document doesn’t say how. Agents searched the home. The documents go on to accuse the Nasirs of having a “hoax weapon of mass destruction.”
Liza Smith, the attorney for Adeeb Nasir, said Tuesday that law enforcement found inert dynamite at the home. They also found firearms and a small amount of marijuana, she said.
Adil Nasir is charged with two felony counts of manufacturing, possessing, selling, or using a weapon of mass destruction. Adeeb Nasir is charged with that plus two lesser felony counts of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person due to controlled substance use.
Neither Nasir has been charged with crimes related to the device under the news vehicle.
“There may have been a federal warrant that initiated this action,” Smith told the judge. “I don’t have access to that warrant yet to address how it is that somehow my client is connected to that in any way.
“But it appears, quite frankly, that he’s not, given that, after the execution of that warrant, he was not charged federally.” Federal prosecutors later charged Christopher S. Proctor with attempted arson and possession of an unregistered destructive device. Court documents allege he planted the gas can with a fuse that failed to ignite the fuel. Proctor, 45, has pleaded not guilty. Last week, a federal magistrate ordered him to be detained pending trial.
Defense attorneys said in court Tuesday that the Nasirs do not know Proctor.
