United States v. Salim

A federal jury convicted Mohamed Salim (defendant) of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin and attempting to bribe an officer of the United States Customs Service. French officials arrested Bebe Soraia Rouhani after discovering nine pounds of heroin in her luggage. Based on Rouhani’s confession, United States officials arrested Salim in a New York City airport. Salim offered a customs agent $20,000 to help Salim escape. The federal district court authorized the prosecution (plaintiff) and Salim’s attorney to take Rouhani’s deposition in France, where Rouhani was detained before her own trial. A French magistrate oversaw Rouhani’s deposition. The magistrate allowed a court reporter from the district court to transcribe the deposition, but French law did not permit Salim to listen to or watch the deposition. The deposition occurred through written interrogatories; the prosecution and defense attorney submitted sets of written questions but did not watch Rouhani answer the questions. Rouhani’s attorney and the court reporter were present during the questioning. The magistrate allowed a one-week break in the deposition to allow Salim’s counsel to review the transcript with Salim. During the second deposition session, all questions and answers were translated for Salim over the phone. Throughout the deposition sessions, several translators translated to Farsi for Rouhani and Salim, to English for Salim’s attorney, and to French for the French court. At the time of Salim’s trial, Rouhani was still detained and thus unavailable as a witness. The trial court permitted portions of Rouhani’s deposition to be read to Salim’s jury, ruling them admissible as former testimony under Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(1). Salim appealed from his conviction, arguing that the court had erred by admitting Rouhani’s deposition.