MALL BOMB PLOT Suspect is sent to prison hospital

He will be tested to see if he is mentally fit to stand trial.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- The attorney for a man accused of plotting to blow up a shopping mall said he is glad his client has been transferred to a prison hospital and could get treatment for bizarre behavior that his family says first appeared during his seven months in jail.
Nuradin Abdi is at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., for a court-ordered evaluation to determine whether he is able to stand trial. Testing to show whether he is able to understand the charges and help in his defense could take 30 to 90 days. The U.S. Marshals Service flew Abdi and three other prisoners from Columbus on Thursday.
"Hopefully he'll get the treatment that he needs," Abdi's San Diego-based attorney, Mahir T. Sherif, said Friday.
Federal Magistrate Mark Abel ordered the evaluation last week. At Sherif's request, he added a sentence to his order requesting psychological treatment if those evaluating him think it will help.
That sentence could prove important. Jack Fox, executive assistant at the Rochester center, said the psychological unit doesn't begin treatment without a court order.
During last week's hearing, the 32-year-old Somali refugee put his face to the glass-covered table, muttered to himself and stared vacantly at relatives.
"He's a very sick man, mentally," Sherif said. "He's way out there. He goes in, out between English and Arabic and Somali. It's all over the map. It's not on one subject. It's a whole lot of incoherent mumbo jumbo."
Accusation
Authorities accuse Abdi of plotting with admitted Al-Qaida member Iyman Faris to blow up an undetermined mall. He was indicted earlier this month on charges of providing material support to Al-Qaida, conspiracy and lying to gain political asylum in the United States. If convicted, he could get up to 80 years in prison.
Abdi, co-owner of a cell phone store, was arrested at his Columbus apartment in November on immigration charges.
Abdi's family and friends have said he had no connection to Faris other than conversations while attending the same mosque.
They also say he was a friendly, helpful person who is not at all like the man in the federal courtroom who seemed not to recognize them. Relatives said they have been allowed few visits since his arrest and say something must have happened in jail to cause the radical behavior change.
Federal prosecutors did not object to the competency test but said they had no knowledge of any abuse.
The stress of incarceration and serious charges could cause psychosis for a person already vulnerable to mental illness, said Dr. Paul Appelbaum, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The psychologists, nurses and others evaluating and observing a prisoner around the clock also will watch carefully for signs that the symptoms are faked, he said.
With the proper medication, Appelbaum said, "Sometimes people who come in very psychotic and incompetent, 30 days later are doing much better."
About the center
The Rochester center, a former state mental health hospital that's been a bureau facility for 20 years, can hold 132 inmates in its mental health unit, according to the Prisons Bureau Web site.
The center consults with the nearby Mayo Clinic, but usually for medical and not mental health problems, Fox said. Psychological evaluations usually are done in-house, he said. Mayo Clinic spokesman John Murphy said he couldn't discuss the type of work the center does for the prisons bureau.
Usually, assignments to the six medical centers are decided by which has space available, Fox said.
Whether an inmate is housed with others at the medical facility or in a single cell for medical or security purposes is decided individually, prisons spokesman Dan Dunne said. The bureau can't release information on inmates other than location.
The attorney said he hasn't decided if he will visit Abdi there, but would do so only if he becomes coherent enough to make a visit productive.
"He's got to be able to have a conversation," Sherif said.