Judge holds anthrax reporter in contempt

Washington: A judge held a former reporter in contempt of court and ordered her to pay up to $5,000 (Dh18,362) a day if she refuses to identify her sources for stories about a former Army scientist under scrutiny in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

US District Judge Reggie Walton said on Saturday that former USA Today reporter Toni Locy must pay fines out of her own pocket as long as she continues to defy his order to cooperate in scientist Steven Hatfill's lawsuit against the government.

Hatfill accuses the Justice Department of violating his privacy and having destroyed his good name by discussing the investigation with reporters.

Five people were killed and 17 sickened when anthrax was mailed to lawmakers and members of the news media just weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft called Hatfill, who worked at the Army's infectious diseases laboratory from 1997 to 1999, "a person of interest" in the investigation.

Locy, a former Associated Press reporter who wrote about Hatfill while working at USA Today, says she cannot remember with whom she spoke about Hatfill specifically and is refusing to identify all the sources she spoke to about anthrax generally.

"I'm terribly disappointed in the judge's ruling," said Locy, now a professor at West Virginia University's journalism school. "I had hoped he would reconsider this sanction."

In his decision, the judge said that further delay of a case that is already over four years old "may very likely prejudice Dr Hatfill".