NCA Demands the Immediate Release of Dr. Sami

[Moses]

NCA Demands the Immediate Release of Dr. Sami Al-Arian

 
January 05, 2006


The National Council of Arab Americans ("NCA") strongly urges US authorities to respect the verdict and immediately release Dr. Sami Al-Arian who has been rightfully acquitted of the most serious of terrorism-related charges.

The NCA notes the jury declared "Not Guilty" eight times and did not return a single guilty verdict on any of the charges after a lengthy trial that included more than 80 witnesses and 400 transcripts of intercepted phone conversations and faxes.

The jury verdict, despite a government-imposed adversarial atmosphere, makes it clear that Dr. Al-Arian's speech in support of the legitimate human rights of Palestinians, as reaffirmed by the United Nations and countless international bodies year after year, does not constitute a crime, but is instead a constitutionally protected fundamental right in the US—the right to free speech.

Yet, despite his demonstrated innocence and acquittal, Dr. Al- Arian remains unjustly imprisoned, often under inhumane conditions, as he has been for nearly three years. As a result, Dr. Al-Arian's wife and children are forced to endure the severe emotional trauma of witnessing a loving father and caring husband remain wrongfully imprisoned.

The NCA urges the government to avoid further fanning the flames of injustice by transforming Dr. Al-Arian's detention into unjust deportation.

The NCA strongly urges the government to serve the interests of justice by immediately freeing Dr. Sami Al-Arian and dropping all charges. More

E-MAIL, CALL and WRITE
Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales
E-MAIL: [e-mail]
PHONE: [phone] and 202-353-1555
MAIL: U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

The other decision maker is Paul Perez, Chief Prosecutor. Please ask him to drop all charges and free Dr. Al-Arian.
Any e-mail can be sent to [e-mail]
Ask that it be forwarded to Paul Perez

Please CC all letters to Pastor Warren Clark, at [e-mail].

Sincerely,


NCA National Office
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)

email: [e-mail]
phone: [phone]
web: www.arab-american.net

[Moses]

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-pbmail734jan05,0,7424308.story?coll=sfla-news-letters

Professor's plight

Alex Seredin
Delray Beach

January 5, 2006

Now that you and Bill O'Reilly and the Zionists have destroyed the life of a brilliant professor of computer engineering, will you apologize at least and send him an apology? Notwithstanding that he might and should sue you for discrediting his character.
Spending three years in jail for nothing is most certainly no fun, aside from damaging the educational contribution to this great country of this brilliant professor.
Needless to say, I am disgusted with the press, which has published hundreds of damaging articles against Sami Al-Arian, at the behest of the Zionist clique.

Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

[Moses]

Published Saturday, January 7, 2006
Al-Arian Retrial Fate Uncertain

The Associated Press

TAMPA -- Federal prosecutors, still stinging from Sami Al-Arian's acquittal on eight terrorism counts last month, said Friday they are leaning toward retrying the former college professor and a co-defendant on charges that their jury could not decide.
Prosecutor Terry Zitek told U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. that the government is "inclined at this point to continue the proceedings, but we haven't made a final decision."

Al-Arian, Hatem Naji Fariz and two others were accused of supporting the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Jurors found Al-Arian not guilty on eight counts and deadlocked on nine others, and cleared Fariz on 25 counts, but deadlocked on eight.
The government, in one of the most important terrorism trials since the 2001 attacks, alleged that the defendants were part of a Tampa cell that took the lead in determining the structure and goals of the PIJ, which the State Department says is a terrrorist group that has carried out more than 100 murders in Israel and its occupied territories.

Prosecutors said Al-Arian and others used the University of South Florida, where Al-Arian was a computer engineering professor, to give them cover as teachers and students, and held meetings under the guise of academic conferences.

The other defendants, Ghassan Zayed Ballut and Sameeh Taha Hammoudeh, were acquitted on all charges after the six-month trial. Zitek told the judge Friday that a retrial could take two months.

Asked whether the government could start in late March or April, Zitek said it was "theoretically possible," but that he would like more time to prepare. The judge said conflicts in the court's schedule meant the only alternative start date would be August.
Lawyers for Al-Arian and Fariz have asked the judge to acquit the men on the remaining charges. Al-Arian's lawyer, William Moffitt, would not say whether there has been any negotiations with prosecutors on a plea deal, but added "There is a real possibility a judge could make a decision that could resolve everything." He would not elaborate.

No matter how the judge rules, Al-Arian, who remains in a Tampa jail, will face deportation. AlArian was born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugee parents and holds permanent residency status in the United States, where he has lived for three decades. He was reared mostly in Egypt. If he is deported it's not clear where he would be sent.

[Moses]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 5, 2006
6:27 PM

CONTACT: National Lawyers Guild
Michael Avery, NLG President, 617-335-5023
David Kairys, 215-204-8959
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, 212-679-5100, x 11

 
The National Lawyers Guild Demands Release on Bail, and Avoidance of Deportation Proceedings for Dr. Sami al-Arian

 
NEW YORK - January 5 - The National Lawyers Guild demands that the government immediately release Dr. Sami Al-Arian on bail and that it guarantee fair procedures in the resolution of outstanding charges against him. An outspoken supporter of the Palestinian people's right to live free from occupation, Dr. Al-Arian has been a political target of the U.S. government.

In a significant blow to the Bush administration’s assault on civil rights and civil liberties, Palestinian activist and former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian was found not guilty on December 6, 2005, of eight of the 17 federal terrorism charges brought against him for his alleged conspiracy to support the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The court declared a mistrial on the remaining counts based on the jury’s inability to reach a unanimous verdict. Yet Dr. Al-Arian still remains imprisoned, as he has been for almost three years, often in deplorable conditions. He has endured two years of solitary confinement in a maximum security penitentiary, was placed in 23-hour lock down in a windowless cell where the light was never turned off and where he was denied a clock or watch. He has been denied basic privileges, been chained and shackled, subject to strip searches and given limited visitation.

Guild President Michael Avery said, “This verdict proves that the Justice Department has completely failed in its heavy-handed case against Dr. Al-Arian, a case in which the defense called not one witness. In rejecting the government’s arguments, the jury found Dr. Al-Arian not guilty on the most serious charges, and affirmed his First Amendment right to speak out on behalf of the Palestinian people.”

Now, instead of retrying him, the government is considering deportation proceedings for Dr. Al-Arian. The NLG strongly urges the government to avoid deportation proceedings, not least because Al-Arian is a stateless Palestinian, and demands that Dr. Al-Arian be afforded a full and fair opportunity to contest any evidence used in such deportation proceedings if they do occur. The NLG urges the government to serve the interests of justice by immediately freeing Dr. Sami Al-Arian and dropping all further charges against him.

Founded in 1937 as the first racially integrated national bar association, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States, with more than 200 chapters. The Guild has a long history of representing individuals who the government has deemed a threat to national security. Guild members defended FBI-targeted individuals and helped expose illegal FBI and CIA surveillance, infiltration and disruption tactics (COINTELPRO) that the U.S. Senate "Church Commission" hearings detailed in 1975-76 and which led to enactment of the Freedom of Information Act and other specific limitations on federal investigative power.

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