Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace

2/16/04

Sameeh Hammoudeh Shackled while Praying

TAMPA-

On Friday Ryan Berry, head of the U.S. Marshal Services in Tampa, interrupted Sameeh Hammoudeh’s prayers, handcuffed him and placed chains around his waist. Hammoudeh, along with Dr. Sami Al-Arian, was praying one of the five daily prayers required in the Islamic religion, after a day of examining evidence at the Federal Courthouse in Tampa. As had occurred on a daily basis, the men had been granted permission by another marshal to pray the afternoon prayer, which does not take longer than five minutes to perform. The official who interrupted Hammoudeh displayed utter disrespect for and ignorance of the Islamic faith when he disrupted his prayer and chained him.

For the past few weeks, this same official has been badgering Hammoudeh and Al-Arian, telling them repeatedly to “speed up” their examination of thousands of documents of evidence. There are an estimated 100,000 documents to be examined, not including 15 additional boxes of which the men were recently informed. Since they have already spent close to ten months at Coleman Federal Penitentiary without being able to examine evidence, it is Al- Arian’s and Hammoudeh’s right to be able to go through the evidence without time restraints.

The Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace condemns the unnecessarily harsh, humiliating and disrespectful actions of this official and asks all concerned citizens to write to Judge Thomas McCoun. Please emphasize the following points:

– Sameeh Hammoudeh’s and Sami Al-Arian’s constitutional first amendment right to freely practice their religion was violated by the official’s actions. He owes them an apology and should promise to treat them with respect and dignity.

-As the trial is a year away, the men should be adequate time to examine evidence crucial to preparing a proper defense.