A man seeking to vacate his conviction for sex crimes involving a child may present testimony from witnesses who are in the Middle East during an “actual innocence” hearing via a live, two-way video feed, a trial court judge has ruled.

In addition to his claim of actual innocence, Jalal Abodalo argued that he had ineffective assistance of counsel before he was convicted in 2009 on nine counts of sex crimes involving his nephew, who was between 5 and 9 years old when the alleged crimes occurred.