Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace

January 5, 2006
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.

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