Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace

March 16, 2004
Dr. Al-Arian Not Permitted to Attend Hearing, Harsh Conditions Continue

On Friday, Dr. Sami Al-Arian and his attorneys learned that he would not be permitted to attend a hearing in his case taking place this Monday, May 17.

Dr. Al-Arian was denied the right to attend the hearing even though in a previous hearing on March 11, the magistrate judge overseeing the case stated that he would be brought back to Tampa within two months.

In fact, since his detention on February 20, 2003, Dr. Al-Arian has not been allowed to attend most of the hearings in his case. So long as he is not in Tampa, Dr. Al-Arian cannot examine the evidence located there in the government’s possession. Even though the judge has stressed publicly that Dr. Al-Arian should be able to examine all of the evidence in a timely manner, this has clearly not been the case. By repeatedly denying requests by attorneys to bring both Dr. Al-Arian and Sameeh Hammoudeh to Tampa to attend hearings and review evidence, Magistrate Thomas McCoun has placed tremendous stress on the defendants, their attorneys, and their families.

Dr. Al-Arian has had to wait for over a year to receive summaries and transcripts of phone calls and other evidence which have been in the government’s possession for years. He was given over 20,000 pages of documents that were in no logical order, chronological or otherwise, all of which will require at least a month just to organize. This systemic inefficiency, along with the time it takes for the government to hand over evidence in the case, is psychologically straining and debilitating to Dr. Al-Arian.

It is part of a longstanding policy by the judge and the government to keep Dr. Al-Arian from participating in his own defense and to isolate him from his family, attorneys and evidence located in Tampa.

Moreover, recently the inhumane conditions in Coleman Federal Penitentiary, 75 miles away from Tampa, under which Dr. Al-Arian has been held have been exacerbated. When he is granted a phone call with his attorneys, usually after much pleading, his hands are cuffed and more recently, shackled to his waist. This obviously makes it extremely difficult for him to hold the receiver, let alone take notes. This action is especially unreasonable and harsh considering he is locked in the room alone at the time, posing danger to no one. Such conditions can only be described as physically torturous, humiliating, and gratuitously punitive.

Although Dr. Al-Arian and his co-defendant Sameeh Hammoudeh are the only pre-trial detainees in the entire facility, they are held under much harsher conditions than the other detainees. Since March 27, 2003, they have been held in the Special Housing Unit (SHU), a section of the prison reserved to temporarily house convicted inmates who misbehave. While the legal limit of placing regular inmates in the SHU is one year, Dr. Al-Arian and Mr. Hammoudeh have been there for 14 months. The stark discrepancy in treatment undoubtedly demonstrates that the men are being discriminated against.

The denial of their right to attend hearings, coupled with the psychological torture they endure on a daily basis (including cruel treatment by the guards), make a fair trial nearly impossible for Dr. Al-Arian and Mr. Hammoudeh. These conditions must change immediately.

At a time when the United States is taking measures to prove its humane treatment of prisoners abroad, it must do the same with its political detainees at home. Persistently keeping Dr. Al-Arian and Mr. Hammoudeh in complete isolation and under abusive treatment from prison officials have had irreversible physical and psychological effects. Action Alert:

We encourage you to write to:
Judge Thomas B. McCoun III, U.S. District Court, 801 North Florida Ave., Tampa, FL 33602

-Ask him about Al-Arian’s due process rights and inhumane treatment and ask that he be moved closer to family, lawyers, and evidence in the case.