CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA — A judge has been asked by lawyers for a former Agriprocessors Inc. executive to bar former plant workers who may have lied to get work in the U.S. from testifying, according to The Associated Press. Approximately 32 former workers from the company are listed as government witnesses in the prosecution of Sholom Rubashkin, a former manager of the Postville Kosher slaughterhouse.

Mr. Rubashkin is accused of immigrant harboring, bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud. His arrest followed a May 2008 immigration raid at the Agriprocessors plant.

In a motion filed Aug. 17, attorneys for Mr. Rubashkin say some government witnesses were "incompetent to testify as a matter of law" because of their desires to return home. Prosecutors kept many of the witnesses in the country despite their wishes to return to Guatemala, Mexico and other homelands.

Prosecutors were given 10 days to respond to the motion.