New York, USA - Federal prosecutors have settled a dispute with a clergyman who defied government regulations and visited Iraq in 2003 to protest the pending U.S.-led invasion, a lawyer for the clergyman said Tuesday.
Under the agreement, the Rev. Frederick Boyle will pay a small fraction of the $6,700 fine the government imposed, said his attorney Jonathan Hafetz.
''I think the settlement reflects the weakness of the government's case and the validity of the principles that Rev. Boyle was defending for himself and for other Americans,'' Hafetz said. ''He was defending basic principles of freedom of speech and freedom of religion and the right of all Americans to oppose an unjust war.''
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment Tuesday.
Boyle was a New Jersey resident when he visited Iraq but was living in Nyack, N.Y., when he filed his complaint against the government fine. The 58-year-old is pastor at the United Methodist Church in Linden, N.J.
He was fined after he took a nine-day trip to Iraq in February and March 2003. At the time, U.S. government restrictions barred American citizens from traveling to Iraq except in limited circumstances. Those restrictions have since been lifted.
Boyle sued the U.S. government in 2005, claiming violations of his First and Fifth amendment rights and of international law.
Besides fines, Hafetz said, Boyle could have faced as many as 12 years in prison if prosecutors had decided to charge him criminally for the banned travel.
Boyle, who wouldn't disclose the amount he'll have to pay, said the settlement stipulates that he will face no criminal prosecution.
''I traveled into Iraq with a Christian peacemaker team,'' Boyle said Tuesday. ''My purpose was to go there and pray with the people. I don't feel that there should have been any prosecution at all.''
Boyle's lawyers contended that his anti-war advocacy was a core part of his constitutionally protected religious beliefs and that he was never given an opportunity to defend himself after the fine was levied.
The government argued that it was entitled to implement the restrictions limiting travel to prewar Iraq. Prosecutor Ross E. Morrison also argued at a hearing in February that there was no evidence to back up Boyle's claim that the government ignored other people's trips to Iraq and targeted Boyle because of his vocal opposition to the war.