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Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace<br>
March 5, 2008 <br><br>
Dr. Al-Arian Moved to Medical Unit<br><br>
TAMPA— Yesterday afternoon, Dr. Sami Al-Arian, who began a hunger <br>
strike Monday to protest government harassment, was moved to the <br>
medical unit of Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia. Jail
<br>
officials made the decision to move Dr. Al-Arian so they can closely
<br>
monitor his health. Dr. Al-Arian, who is abstaining from both food <br>
and water as part of his hunger strike, has already lost six pounds <br>
in the past 36 hours.<br><br>
"The Department of Justice has disgraced its own mandate of the
<br>
pursuit of justice and made a mockery of the bedrock principle of <br>
trial by jury in its shameful persecution of Dr. Al Arian," said
<br>
Linda Moreno, one of Dr. Al-Arian's trial attorneys. "One can only
<br>
conclude, after a fair consideration of the record, that this is the
<br>
new form of lynching, not hung from a tree by hooded criminals, but <br>
rather suspended between prison and limbo by political prosecutors <br>
with no end in sight. The Constitution has been canceled until
<br>
further notice."<br><br>
"The manipulation of the grand jury by Assistant US Attorney <br>
Kromberg, and the failure of the Justice Department and the Courts to
<br>
respect basic contract-law principles in enforcing the terms of <br>
the `no-cooperation' plea agreement, is making a mockery of the Sixth
<br>
Amendment right to jury trial," said Peter Erlinder, professor at
<br>
William Mitchell School of Law. "All Americans should reject this
<br>
continuing manipulation of our legal system the same way the Tampa <br>
jury rejected the case against Dr. al Arian, when they acquitted him
<br>
in December 2005."<br><br>
The National Lawyers Guild yesterday released a statement calling the
<br>
latest summons to appear before a grand jury "punitive government
<br>
harassment" of Dr. Al-Arian. Please see the full statement
below.<br><br>
<br>
=END=<br><br>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br>
March 4, 2008<br>
12:42 PM <br><br>
<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0304-04.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://www.commondreams.org/news2008/0304-04.htm<br><br>
</a>CONTACT: National Lawyers Guild<br>
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org, 212-679-<br>
5100, ext. 11<br>
Peter Erlinder, Counsel for Al-Arian, peter.erlinder@wmitchell.edu, <br>
651-290-6384<br><br>
National Lawyers Guild Calls Third Summons to Grand Jury of Dr. Sami
<br>
Al-Arian Punitive Government Harrassment<br><br>
NEW YORK - March 4 - Dr. Sami Amin Al-Arian, who has spent the past <br>
four years in jail despite a jury's failure to return a single guilty
<br>
verdict against him, has been called before a third grand jury <br>
despite the fact that Al-Arian signed a "no-cooperation"
agreement <br>
with the government providing that he would not be required to appear
<br>
before any grand jury. The announcement came yesterday, one month <br>
before his scheduled release. <br><br>
Past-National Lawyers Guild President Peter Erlinder, Al-Arian's <br>
counsel in 4th Circuit and 11th Circuit appeals, and on <br>
the "acquitted conduct" Supreme Court cert petition said,
"The <br>
duplicity of the Justice Department and the failure of the courts to
<br>
recognize basic contract-law principles in this case is an example of
<br>
how politically-motivated "war on terror" prosecutions are
distorting <br>
the American legal system. In the Al-Arian case, the Justice <br>
Department and the courts have made a mockery of the Sixth Amendment
<br>
right to a jury trial which should outrage all Americans as deeply as
<br>
the Tampa jury that acquitted Dr. Al-Arian more than two years ago."
<br><br>
It is now likely that when Dr. Al-Arian again refuses to testify <br>
because of the "no-cooperation" agreement, he will be charged
with <br>
obstruction of justice and could receive several additional years in
<br>
prison. If he testifies, he faces a "perjury" trap based on
Assistant <br>
U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg's past practice with other acquitted <br>
Palestinian defendants. <br><br>
When he was arrested in February 2003, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was a <br>
prominent Palestinian academic and a leading member of the Muslim <br>
community in south Florida and one of the most prominent Palestinian
<br>
academics and activists in the United States. He was acquitted on <br>
eight of 17 charges against him December 2005 after a six month trial
<br>
with three co-defendants. In April 2006 he pleaded guilty to a single
<br>
count of conspiracy, involving assisting his brother in law in his <br>
immigration matters and denying to a reporter that he knew of a <br>
colleague's association with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In return, <br>
federal prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining eight charges on <br>
which the jury had "hung" 10-2 for acquittal and to recommend a
time-<br>
served sentence with release and deportation in May 2006. The Tampa <br>
AUSA admitted, on the record, that the usual "cooperation
clause" was <br>
removed from the plea agreement because Dr. Al-Arian and his lawyers
<br>
would not agree to any form of cooperation. <br><br>
At sentencing on May 1, 2007, Tampa Federal Judge James Moody gave <br>
him the constitutional maximum sentence of an additional year, citing
<br>
the very offenses of which the jury had acquitted him. Despite <br>
the "no-cooperation" agreement, and while the appeal of his
acquitted <br>
conduct sentence was pending on appeal, Al-Arian was found in civil <br>
contempt in January 2007. In December 2007, a federal judge in lifted
<br>
the civil contempt and Al-Arian's new release date was April 2008.
<br><br>
After the contempt detention Dr. Al Arian went on a 100-day hunger-<br>
strike because of the government's refusal to honor the plea <br>
agreement. (He has just begun another hunger-strike.) Before trial <br>
Dr. Al-Arian was held in Super-Max solitary and was subjected to <br>
inhumane and punitive conditions, including 23-hour lockdown, abuse <br>
from prison staff, unsanitary conditions with exposure to vermin, <br>
denial of adequate winter clothing, bedding and religiously <br>
appropriate diet, all in breach of Article 10 of the International <br>
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States is
<br>
a party and has triggered an on-going investigation by the DOJ <br>
Inspector General. <br><br>
"This latest decision to call Dr. Al-Arian before a grand jury <br>
clearly breaches his plea bargain and seems a political maneuver to <br>
lengthen his prison term," said Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director
<br>
of the National Lawyers Guild. The prosecutor in charge of the grand
<br>
jury case in Virginia uttered anti-Islamic remarks when discussing <br>
postponing Dr. Al-Arian's transfer to Virginia during Ramadan.
"Anti-<br>
Islamic remarks by the Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Gordon Kromberg
<br>
are further cause for concern that Dr. Al-Arian is being subjected to
<br>
especially punitive treatment based on his religion," continued
<br>
Boghosian. <br><br>
Founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, <br>
which did not admit people of color, the National Lawyers Guild is <br>
the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization
<br>
in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has <br>
chapters in every state.<br><br>
<br>
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