Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace
March 5, 2008
Subject: -[TBCJP]- Dr. Al-Arian Moved to Medical UnitT
TAMPA— Yesterday afternoon, Dr. Sami Al-Arian, who began a hunger
strike Monday to protest government harassment, was moved to the
medical unit of Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia. Jail
officials made the decision to move Dr. Al-Arian so they can closely
monitor his health. Dr. Al-Arian, who is abstaining from both food
and water as part of his hunger strike, has already lost six pounds
in the past 36 hours.
“The Department of Justice has disgraced its own mandate of the
pursuit of justice and made a mockery of the bedrock principle of
trial by jury in its shameful persecution of Dr. Al Arian,” said
Linda Moreno, one of Dr. Al-Arian’s trial attorneys. “One can only
conclude, after a fair consideration of the record, that this is the
new form of lynching, not hung from a tree by hooded criminals, but
rather suspended between prison and limbo by political prosecutors
with no end in sight. The Constitution has been canceled until
further notice.”
“The manipulation of the grand jury by Assistant US Attorney
Kromberg, and the failure of the Justice Department and the Courts to
respect basic contract-law principles in enforcing the terms of
the `no-cooperation’ plea agreement, is making a mockery of the Sixth
Amendment right to jury trial,” said Peter Erlinder, professor at
William Mitchell School of Law. “All Americans should reject this
continuing manipulation of our legal system the same way the Tampa
jury rejected the case against Dr. al Arian, when they acquitted him
in December 2005.”
The National Lawyers Guild yesterday released a statement calling the
latest summons to appear before a grand jury “punitive government
harassment” of Dr. Al-Arian. Please see the full statement below.
END.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2008
12:42 PM
http://www.commondreams.org/
CONTACT: National Lawyers Guild
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org, 212-679-
5100, ext. 11
Peter Erlinder,, peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu,
651-290-6384
National Lawyers Guild Calls Third Summons to Grand Jury of Dr. Sami
Al-Arian Punitive Government Harrassment
NEW YORK – March 4 – Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian, who has spent the past
four years in jail despite a jury’s failure to return a single guilty
verdict against him, has been called before a third grand jury
despite the fact that Al-Arian signed a “no-cooperation” agreement
with the government providing that he would not be required to appear
before any grand jury. The announcement came yesterday, one month
before his scheduled release.
Past-National Lawyers Guild President Peter Erlinder, Al-Arian’s
counsel in 4th Circuit and 11th Circuit appeals, and on
the “acquitted conduct” Supreme Court cert petition said, “The
duplicity of the Justice Department and the failure of the courts to
recognize basic contract-law principles in this case is an example of
how politically-motivated “war on terror” prosecutions are distorting
the American legal system. In the Al-Arian case, the Justice
Department and the courts have made a mockery of the Sixth Amendment
right to a jury trial which should outrage all Americans as deeply as
the Tampa jury that acquitted Dr. Al-Arian more than two years ago.”
It is now likely that when Dr. Al-Arian again refuses to testify
because of the “no-cooperation” agreement, he will be charged with
obstruction of justice and could receive several additional years in
prison. If he testifies, he faces a “perjury” trap based on Assistant
U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg’s past practice with other acquitted
Palestinian defendants.
When he was arrested in February 2003, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was a
prominent Palestinian academic and a leading member of the Muslim
community in south Florida and one of the most prominent Palestinian
academics and activists in the United States. He was acquitted on
eight of 17 charges against him December 2005 after a six month trial
with three co-defendants. In April 2006 he pleaded guilty to a single
count of conspiracy, involving assisting his brother in law in his
immigration matters and denying to a reporter that he knew of a
colleague’s association with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In return,
federal prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining eight charges on
which the jury had “hung” 10-2 for acquittal and to recommend a time-
served sentence with release and deportation in May 2006. The Tampa
AUSA admitted, on the record, that the usual “cooperation clause” was
removed from the plea agreement because Dr. Al-Arian and his lawyers
would not agree to any form of cooperation.
At sentencing on May 1, 2007, Tampa Federal Judge James Moody gave
him the constitutional maximum sentence of an additional year, citing
the very offenses of which the jury had acquitted him. Despite
the “no-cooperation” agreement, and while the appeal of his acquitted
conduct sentence was pending on appeal, Al-Arian was found in civil
contempt in January 2007. In December 2007, a federal judge in lifted
the civil contempt and Al-Arian’s new release date was April 2008.
After the contempt detention Dr. Al Arian went on a 100-day hunger-
strike because of the government’s refusal to honor the plea
agreement. (He has just begun another hunger-strike.) Before trial
Dr. Al-Arian was held in Super-Max solitary and was subjected to
inhumane and punitive conditions, including 23-hour lockdown, abuse
from prison staff, unsanitary conditions with exposure to vermin,
denial of adequate winter clothing, bedding and religiously
appropriate diet, all in breach of Article 10 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is
a party and has triggered an on-going investigation by the DOJ
Inspector General.
“This latest decision to call Dr. Al-Arian before a grand jury
clearly breaches his plea bargain and seems a political maneuver to
lengthen his prison term,” said Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director
of the National Lawyers Guild. The prosecutor in charge of the grand
jury case in Virginia uttered anti-Islamic remarks when discussing
postponing Dr. Al-Arian’s transfer to Virginia during Ramadan. “Anti-
Islamic remarks by the Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Gordon Kromberg
are further cause for concern that Dr. Al-Arian is being subjected to
especially punitive treatment based on his religion,” continued
Boghosian.
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association,
which did not admit people of color, the National Lawyers Guild is
the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization
in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has
chapters in every state.
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