Appeal Against Deported Man May Proceed

WASHINGTON - As Mahamu D. Kanneh awaits deportation, Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler says he wants to see prosecutors pursue an appeal to have rape charges against Kanneh reinstated.

Kanneh is the Liberian immigrant whose sexual abuse case was dismissed when he didn't get a speedy trial. Deportation proceedings started soon after the dismissal was reported.

"Is it worth going forward? We're inclined to say that it is, and that we are leaning heavily toward going forward with the appeal," Gansler tells WTOP.

Kanneh, 23, of Rockville was charged in 2004 with the rape of a 7-year-old relative and with sex offenses involving an 18-month-old child. The 7-year-old said she had been raped and repeatedly molested over the course of a year.

After a hearing Wednesday in Baltimore, immigration officials ordered that Kanneh be immediately and permanently removed from the U.S., says Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy.

Immigration spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs says Kanneh is in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and could be deported at any time.

McCarthy says his office plans to discuss with Gansler whether the appeal that's set to be heard in January by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, the state's second highest court, should be dropped. A decision is expected Friday.

Kanneh, who was in the U.S. legally after being granted refugee status as a teenager, attended high school and community college in Montgomery County. He spoke to detectives in English after his arrest.

His trial was postponed several times because court officials could not find an interpreter fluent in Vai, Kanneh's native dialect. Kanneh's defense insisted that he needed an interpreter to fully understand the proceedings. The charges were dismissed this summer when a judge ruled his right to a speedy trial had been violated.

Because of the deportation order McCarthy tells WTOP he doubts the rape case would ever go to trial.

But Gansler doesn't want to see the matter dropped.

"While the argument could be made that it is potentially moot, there are certainly other arguments. One would be that an alleged rapist can have his case thrown out because he pretends not to speak a particular language," Gansler says.

Gansler says pursuing the appeal would be insurance against Kanneh returning to the U.S.

"We're going to try to do what is the best thing after everybody examines all the particular options," McCarthy tells WTOP.

(Copyright 2007 by WTOP and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)