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AMP Report - January 16, 2007
Pakistani family intimidated:
Community Outraged at $35,000 bond set by
immigration judge for mother & daughter
New Jersey, Jan 16, 2007 - Muslim community is outraged at the $35,000 bond set by a Immigration Judge in New Jersey for mother and sister of Matin Siraj, a 24-year-old Pakistani immigrant, who was sentenced on January 7, 2007 to 30 years in prison for terrorism charges based on a paid informer of the New York Police Department.
Less than twelve hours after sentencing, the Siraj family's Queens home was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials at dawn and father, mother and daughter were arrested and jailed in New Jersey.
After today’s hearing, the family's immigration lawyer, Mona Shah, said that the bond amount was peculiarly high for a routine immigration matter.
Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) a civil rights group held a demonstration in support of the Pakistani family.
After hearing the Judge's decision, a family member said the family cannot make magic to raise this money as it has already broken their backs to fight a preposterous case against their son. “The lives of an innocent family are being destroyed."
While family and community members scramble to raise funds, the family will be held at Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey. The father will not receive a similar hearing and instead, is subject to an ICE Administrative decision under an unspecified timeline.
An organizer of the demonstration in support of the family, Fahd Ahmed said setting such an unreasonable bond is clearly another political tactic to keep our communities fearful and silent. “The Siraj family, as another victim of the US government's "war on terror", is being targeted for their outspoken cries for justice on behalf of their son.”
A press release of DRUM said that given the high-profile media attention on their son's case, in which there were many underhanded legal irregularities and rights violations, these arrests and the unreachable bond are being seen by the community as an attempt to silence and make an example of the family through harassment.
Martin Stolar, defence attorney for Matin Siraj said last week that Siraj was entrapped by a paid police informant who lured him into the conspiracy. In an interview with the Democracy Now Radio, Mr Stolar said Ms Siraj’s story was a simple one that had been replicated across the United States.
The attorney said Mr Siraj had met the informer, Osama Eldawoody, at his uncle’s Islamic bookshop near a mosque where he used to pray. Mr Eldawoody is an Egyptian nuclear engineer who became a paid informant for the police’s intelligence division. He introduced himself as an Islamic scholar and offered to teach Mr Siraj the duties of a real Muslim.
As the pictures of atrocities in Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq came out, Mr Eldawoody convinced Mr Siraj that it was the duty of a ‘true believer’ to engage in jihad, the lawyer said.
The attorney emphasised that the plot to blow up the 34th Street subway station developed as a result of the informant, who had been in the community and at the mosque for about two-and-a-half years, basically coming up with nothing until he developed the young man as somebody who was willing to engage in violence.
It may be recalled that in a similar headline-grabbing terrorist trial a young Pakistani-American, Hamid Hayat of Lodi, CA was incited and lured by an informer for a period of three year. The FBI informer was paid $250,000 to infiltrate the Lodi Muslim community.
Read also: “New York Police entrapped Pakistani immigrant in bomb plot case”
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