A Washington man, who was a member of environmental groups, was accused of committing acts of violence in Oregon in the late 1990s. He fled the country after fleeing from the country.
Quinn Harrington, Assistant U.S. attorney, stated during Tuesday’s hearing in the U.S. District Court for Oregon, that the plea agreement would resolve all 54-year-old Joseph Mahmoud Dibees federal criminal charges in Washington and California.
Prosecutors alleged that Dibee belonged to the Earth Liberation Front (ALF) and Animal Liberation Front (US Department of Justice) which were both responsible for domestic terrorist acts. Five Western states were affected by the ELF/ALF in the 1990s, 2000s. The damage was worth millions of dollars. The federal prosecutors charged 18 people in connection with a conspiracy.
Joe Dibee, pictured while he sits on the steps leading up to his family’s home in Seattle, Wednesday, February 17, 2021.
Megan Farmer / KUOW
Harrington stated that all of it is incorporated into the plea agreement. According to Harrington, the agreement included the Justice Department’s decision to dismiss the Washington Dibees case.
Other terms of the plea agreement were not immediately available. Dibees attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment. Oregons U.S. The Attorneys Office declined comment. It is not clear yet what penalties Dibee will face under the plea deal.
After 12 years as an international refugee living in Syria, Russia, and working on large-scale environmental projects, Dibee is now a fugitive from the ELF/ALF case.
Dibee was charged in Oregon by federal prosecutors with arson, conspiracy and destruction of an oil facility. They claimed that he was part a group that destroyed Cavel West, a Redmond, Oregon slaughterhouse that processed horses and sold meat to Europe, in 1997.
According to the federal government, Joseph Dibee and other environmental activists caused substantial damage to Cavel West’s horse slaughter facility in Madras (Oregon) in 1997.
Federal Bureau of Investigations
Dibee is also being accused in a 1998 arson attack at a USDA facility near Olympia, Washington, as well as a 2001 fire that destroyed hay and a pole barn at an Bureau of Land Management facility close to Litchfield, California. In those cases, Dibee is charged with conspiracy to commit arson and arson of a government structure.
Dibee, who was calling during Tuesday’s hearing, confirmed to U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken that he had agreed to a plea. The hearing is scheduled for Monday.
The parties indicated that negotiations were ongoing for several weeks thanks to the mediation of former U.S. Magistrate Judge Tom Coffin.
Dibee was in Seattle’s home confinement since the beginning of last year. He had previously cared for his father, an elderly man.
Matt Schindler, Dibees defense lawyer, stated at the hearing that it was not easy for him to negotiate the plea deal.
Schindler stated that he believes this has been a very challenging, really difficult process. It speaks volumes about his character and how he has overcome. It was a difficult few weeks.
Dibee has always disputed the government’s description of his actions as domestic terrorist.
Dibee stated that terrorism is not a common charge in most cases, as he told OPB in a 2021 interview. I am more vulnerable, and more vulnerable to this accusation because I am an Arab man living in the United States. And that is something I am fully aware of.
Dibee admitted in that interview that he was not involved with any organized environmental groups but that he did have a confrontational approach in the 90s to his beliefs. He stated that his approach to environmental issues has changed and that he now focuses on technology to help people adapt the climate change effects.
Joe Dibee can be seen looking out of the window of his family’s Seattle home on Wednesday February 17, 2021.
Megan Farmer / KUOW