Mar. 25, 2008
On Thursday Mar. 20, more than two weeks after beginning a water and food strike,
Dr. Sami Al-Arian began drinking water. He remains on a
hunger strike. Throughout his strike, despite suffering from chest
pains, severe dehydration, headaches and other symptoms, Dr. Al-Arian
was not offered an IV or treated for any of the symtoms. Thursday
morning, Dr. Al-Arian appeared before a third grand jury and once
again did not testify, citing his plea agreement which does not
require his cooperation. The grand jury appearance–and the
Department of Justice’s continued attemps to indefinitely prolong Dr.
Al-Arian’s imprisonment– came less than three weeks before his April
7 release date.
On Friday, the nationally syndicated television and radio program
Democracy Now! featured Dr. Al-Arian’s daughter Laila and one of his
attorneys, Will Olsen. Click on the following link to watch/listen to
the program and read the transcript:
http://www.democracynow.org/
The following day, Dr. Al-Arian’s wife, Nahla, his brother, Khaled,
and former counsel Peter Erlinder appeared on “Hiwar Maftuh” (Open
Dialogue), one of the most-watched programs on the Al-Jazeera Arab
satellite network. The program generated hundreds of letters, phone
calls and emails in support of the Al-Arian family. We hope to have a
link to the program soon.
The Washington Post on Mar. 22 published an article about the Al
Arian case (Refusal Keeps Terrorism Convict in Prison) that contained
some errors.
The article takes at face value the Department of Justice’s claim
that the plea agreement Dr. Al-Arian signed with the government does
not bar them from requesting his testimony. But federal prosecutors
based in Florida, who negotiated the plea agreement on behalf of the
DOJ, dispute this statement.
Assistant US Attorney Terry Zitek on Nov. 18, 2006, told Judge James
Moody of Florida: “Al-Arian says, ‘I don’t want to cooperate.’ So
we say, ‘We won’t put a cooperation provision in
there.'”The “cooperation provision” to which Zitek referred was, of
course, the standard cooperation provision which forms the backdrop
of every plea agreement signed in the Middle District of Florida.
This provision was expressly removed in the Al-Arian case, at Dr. Al
Arian’s insistence. The government acceded to this request.
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