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AMP Report – January 30, 2007
AMT seeks end to harassment of Dr. Al Arian
The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a national coalition of major American Muslim organizations, says that the new prison sentence given to former Florida Professor Dr. Sami Al-Arian amounted to unconstitutional "double jeopardy."
Al-Arian recently began a hunger strike after being given a sentence of up to 18 months for refusing to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. He and his attorney say an early plea agreement freed him from further cooperation with the government. Al-Arian's supporters say he is being held in a rat and cockroach-infested prison and is being forced to wear dirty and inadequate clothing as a form of harassment.
In 2005, a Florida jury rejected federal charges that Al-Arian operated a cell for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Arian later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was scheduled for release and deportation in April.
In a statement, the AMT said: "It is becoming increasingly clear that the government is seeking to impose legal and physical penalties on Dr. Al-Arian that it could not obtain through the judicial process. The government's actions amount to an unconstitutional 'double jeopardy' situation in which a person who was cleared of all charges by a jury of his peers is nonetheless being imprisoned in harsh conditions through administrative means.
"We call on all fair-minded Americans who care about the preservation of the integrity of our nation's legal system to speak out about this apparent abuse of prosecutorial power. We also call on federal authorities to cease their harassment of Dr. Al-Arian and to release him as scheduled so that he and his family can resume their lives in another country."
The AMT includes: American Muslim Alliance (AMA), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), Muslim American Society (MAS), Muslim Student Association-National (MSA-N), Muslim Ummah of North America (MUNA), Project Islamic Hope (PIH), and United Muslims of America (UMA).
Records of the contempt proceedings against Al-Arian are under seal
Dr. Sami Al-Arian, in a new appeals court filing, argued that federal prosecutors double-crossed him by calling him in front of a grand jury in Virginia after he agreed to a plea bargain.
If the Kuwaiti-born Al-Arian prevails before the 11th Circuit, he could be released from prison and deported as soon as April. If the government's position is upheld, the former University of South Florida computer-engineering professor's stay in American jails could be extended by 18 months or more.
In April 2006, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide assistance to a designated terrorist group. His guilty plea followed a lengthy trial in Tampa in 2005 that ended with his acquittal on eight counts and jurors deadlocked on nine others.
The prosecution and defense proposed a 46-month prison term for Al-Arian, which amounted to little more than the time he served before, during, and after his trial. However, Judge James Moody Jr. gave Al-Arian 57 months, the maximum under federal guidelines.
Soon after that unexpectedly lengthy sentence was handed down, a federal prosecutor in Virginia, Gordon Kromberg, began proceedings to summon Al-Arian before a grand jury investigating a Herndon, Va.-based think tank, the International Institute of Islamic Thought. Al-Arian moved to quash his subpoena, arguing that the plea deal with prosecutors in Florida relieved him from having to testify. Al-Arian appealed after Judge Moody rejected that argument, noting that the plea deal filed in court did not address the issue.
"Even though the non-cooperation agreement never made its way into the written plea agreement, the parties appear to agree that it nevertheless induced Dr. Al-Arian to plead guilty," the professor's lawyers for the appeal, Jack Fernandez and Lee Fugate of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, wrote in a brief made public last week. They noted that Al-Arian and his trial lawyers stated under oath that there was a verbal agreement during plea talks that he not be required to cooperate with the government. In addition, a prosecutor said in court that the plea deal was expanded to include those pursuing the investigation in Virginia.
The contempt dispute also has exposed some disagreement among prosecutors. When the plea was entered last spring, the U.S. attorney in Tampa, Paul Perez, portrayed it as a victory and a vindication. However, the defense contends that the Virginia prosecutor, Mr. Kromberg, referred to the plea deal as a "bonanza" for the former professor.
Al-Arian's attorneys also have accused Mr. Kromberg of displaying a "personal animosity towards Muslims." After a defense lawyer asked to delay Al-Arian's testimony until after Ramadan, Mr. Kromberg allegedly responded, "If they can kill each other during Ramadan, they can appear before the grand jury; all they can't do is eat before sunset. I believe Mr. Al-Arian's request is part of the attempted Islamicization of the American justice system. I am not going to put off Dr. Al-Arian's grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the Islamicization of America."
The appeal raises several thorny legal issues, such as whether the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit even has jurisdiction to hear the dispute given that the refusal to testify took place in Virginia. The defense is asking the 11th Circuit to decide the case based in part on a 1992 case in which the Richmond-based 4th Circuit held that prosecutors could not force a defendant to testify after making an out-of-court promise not to require his cooperation.
Records of the contempt proceedings against Al-Arian are under seal, along with some materials filed by both prosecution and defense in the appeals court.
Al-Arian begins hunger strike to protest 'government harassment'
On Monday Jan. 22, 2007 Dr. Sami Al-Arian began a hunger strike to protest continued government harassment. That day, Dr. Al-Arian appeared before a new grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was subpoenaed by a rogue federal prosecutor to testify a second time in the same case. After Dr. Al- Arian expressed his ethical stance against testifying, a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia held him in civil contempt, once again prolonging his suffering and imprisonment by up to 18 months. Dr. Al-Arian's originally scheduled release date is April 13.
Last November, the same judge placed Dr. Al-Arian in civil contempt for not testifying. At the time, his attorneys argued that cooperation was a clear violation of the plea agreement he reached with Florida prosecutors last May. One month after he was held in contempt, the grand jury term expired. However, less than a month later, a new grand jury was once again impaneled by Gordon Kromberg, a federal prosecutor whose racist statements against Arabs and Muslims are well-known.
During Jan. 21 court appearance, Dr. Al-Arian's attorney requested to delay the judge's decision until further evidence could be brought to light supporting Dr. Al-Arian's decision not testify and the highlighting the government's abuse of power. However, the judge denied the request and ordered that Dr. Al-Arian be held in civil contempt.
This is the second hunger strike by Dr. Al-Arian, who is a diabetic, during his nearly four-year imprisonment. Following his February 20, 2003 incarceration, he went on a 140-day hunger strike to protest the government's political persecution. During that time, he was hospitalized and lost 45 pounds.
In recent weeks, Dr. Al-Arian has been placed under particularly arduous conditions after he was moved from Warsaw, Virginia to Atlanta because of what prison authorities deemed a "mistake." Not only did the nonsensical move further isolate Dr. Al-Arian from family and friends, but he was also denied phone calls and visitations in Atlanta.
These latest developments in Dr. Al-Arian's case are a clear and outrageous display of government corruption and abuse of power. In spite of an agreement intended to resolve his case once and for all, the government has continued to harass Dr. Al-Arian and mire him further in legal purgatory. He will remain on a hunger strike until the government ends its vindictive campaign against him and allows him to return to his wife and children.
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