Lawyer off USF student's federal explosive case

TAMPA -- Attorney John Fitzgibbons is off the federal explosives case of a suspended University of South Florida student.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo granted Fitzgibbons' motion on Monday to withdraw from the case after Ahmed Mohamed said he didn't want the lawyer to represent him anymore.

During the hearing, Mohamed accused an Egyptian embassy official of pocketing some of the money that was allocated for his legal defense.

He also said the Egyptian government would force his parents to repay $750,000 if he did not keep Fitzgibbons as his attorney.

Mohamed is accused of illegally transporting explosive materials. He was arrested with fellow student Youssef Megahed near a South Carolina naval base Aug. 4, after a deputy said he found pipe bombs in their trunk.

Fitzgibbons said he had received a $500,000 non-refundable retainer to bring the case to trial. He said he had done between $100,000 and $200,000 of work on the case and estimated that he would return more than $300,000 to the government. He also said he would return about $40,000 of the $50,000 paid to him for expenses.

Fitzgibbons was clearly relieved to be off the case.

"It's going now from the weird to the bizarre," he said after court. "Now he's accusing Egyptian government officials of stealing money as sort of some big conspiracy. So you can see what I've been dealing with."

-- Colleen Jenkins, Times staff writer