NATIONAL BRIEFING / ARKANSAS
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The man accused of killing an Army private outside a recruiting center never suffered torture or beatings while jailed on an immigration violation in Yemen, an official with the country’s embassy said.
Embassy spokesman Mohammed Albasha denied claims by Abdulhakim Muhammad’s lawyer that abuse radicalized the man into becoming a terrorist. Instead, Albasha said, the once-idealistic college student from Tennessee found his own way to religious anger after converting to Islam in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Muhammad, 23, appeared briefly in Little Rock District Court. Judge Alice Lightle appointed lawyer Jim Hensley to represent him.
Muhammad has pleaded not guilty to a capital murder charge in the death Monday of Pvt. William Long.
Another soldier, Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, was wounded in the shooting.
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