By Matthew Barakat
Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Virginia man linked to two suspected hijackers in the terrorist attacks exaggerated his involvement with them, authorities said Wednesday.
Luis A. Martinez-Flores is charged with lying that Khalid Almihdhar and Hani Hanjour lived with him in Falls Church. The sworn statement allowed the two men to get ID cards from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.
At a detention hearing in U.S. District Court, FBI Special Agent Jesus Gomez testified that Martinez-Flores “exaggerated and embellished” his connection to the men in interviews with the FBI.
There had been reports that Martinez-Flores, a 28-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador, had a close association with the hijackers. He might have moved around with the terrorists in New York, Boston or Florida, according to Mauricio Sandoval, El Salvador’s national police director.
But Prosecutor John Morton said Martinez-Flores “misled investigators at great length for several days” before admitting his only interaction with the men came on Aug. 1, when he helped them obtain the fraudulent IDs.
It’s unclear why Martinez-Flores would have wanted to exaggerate his connections to the hijackers. His lawyer, Jeffrey Zimmerman, declined to comment after Wednesday’s hearing.
U.S. Magistrate Barry Poretz ordered Martinez-Flores held until his trial, which has not been set.
Two other people with ties to Virginia also have been charged with helping suspected hijackers get false IDs.
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