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<h4><b><a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/21//">March 21,
2008</a></b></h4>
<img src="http://i2.democracynow.org/images/story/38/16538/TEMP-Image_1_7.jpg" width=80 height=100 alt="Temp-image_1_7">
</b></h4><font size=3> <br>
</font><h2><b>Al-Arian Enters 19th Day of Hunger Strike in Protest of
“Government
Harassment”</b></h2><font size=3>
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/21/al_arian_enters_19th_day_of<br><br>
Jailed Palestinian Professor Sami Al-Arian has entered the nineteenth day
of a hunger strike to protest what he calls continued government
harassment. He was brought before a third grand jury Thursday, but did
not testify. We speak with Al-Arian’s eldest daughter, Laila, and his
local counsel in Virginia, Will Olson. [includes rush
transcript]<br><br>
<br>
Guests:<br><br>
<b>Laila Al-Arian</b>, Sami Al-Arian’s eldest daughter. She is a
freelance journalist living in New York.<br><br>
<b>Will Olson</b>, Local Virginia counsel for Sami Al-Arian<br><br>
<b>JUAN GONZALEZ: </b>Jailed Palestinian Professor Sami Al-Arian has
entered the nineteenth day of a hunger strike to protest what he calls
continued government harassment. He was brought before a third grand jury
Thursday, but did not testify.<br><br>
Al-Arian has been in prison for five years on charges that he was a
leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Two years ago, a Florida jury
failed to return a single guilty verdict on any of the seventeen charges
brought against him. Despite the jury’s findings, Al-Arian remained
behind bars. Last year, Al-Arian was imprisoned for an additional
eighteen months for refusing to testify before a Virginia grand jury.
<br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>We’re joined now here in the firehouse studio by
Laila Al-Arian, the eldest daughter of Sami Al-Arian, a freelance
journalist here in New York. Joining us on the phone from Washington,
Will Olson, the local Virginia counsel for Sami Al-Arian. <br><br>
We welcome you both to <i>Democracy Now!</i> Can you describe, Laila,
what has happened now? He was not convicted on any of the seventeen
charges. They deadlocked on, what was it, nine of them, and they
acquitted him on seven counts? <br><br>
<b>LAILA AL-ARIAN: </b>Eight counts. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Eight counts. So then what happened? He did do a plea
bargain? <br><br>
<b>LAILA AL-ARIAN: </b>Yes, a few months later, he plea-bargained with
the government, because even though the government had the option of
dropping all the charges against him and releasing them, they threatened
to retry him, and he did sign a plea agreement, pleading guilty to one
count of providing services. And <br><br>
<b>JUAN GONZALEZ: </b>Of providing services? <br><br>
<b>LAILA AL-ARIAN: </b>Services to a designated terrorist organization.
And basically, if you actually look at what he pled to, though, it was
helping immigrants come to this country, helping his brother-in-law, my
uncle, who was imprisoned under the use of secret evidence in the 1990s.
So if you look at the statement of facts of what he pled to, it was
actually pretty innocuous activities. <br><br>
However, after that, a prosecutor in Virginia by the name of Gordon
Kromberg started to subpoena my father to testify in a completely
unrelated case before a grand jury. My father, when he was signing the
plea agreement, said that cooperation was not a clause, that it was out
of the question for him to be forced to cooperate and comply with the
government. So my father so far has been brought before a grand jury
three times. He was held in civil contempt for not testifying for
eighteen months. <br><br>
And right now, the government has brought him before a third grand jury
yesterday, and we are faced with two horrible options: either he would
testify and be charged with perjury or obstruction of justiceand this
isn’t a question of “if,” it’s a question of “when.” Ifyou know, his
attorney told him, in no uncertain terms, that he would be charged with
perjury and that this is a perjury trap. Basically, the standards for
being charged with perjury are pretty low. You caneven if you’re
truthful, you can be charged with perjury. And these are Ken Starr
tactics. These are tactics that the government has used before,
unfortunately. <br><br>
And the prosecutor who’s after him has made on-the-record anti-Muslim
statements; he said he doesn’t want to assist in the, quote,
“Islamization of America and of the American justice system.” <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Who is this? <br><br>
<b>LAILA AL-ARIAN: </b>His name is Gordon Kromberg. He’s in the Eastern
District of Virginia. And the other option is for him not to testify,
which is what he’s been doing and which is why he’s on a hunger strike
right now, because he will not testify. This is a violation of his plea
agreement, in which he’ll be charged with criminal contempt and facing a
minimum of five more years in prison. This is outrageous. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>He’s on a hunger strike? <br><br>
<b>LAILA AL-ARIAN: </b>He is on a hunger strike. This is his nineteenth
day of a hunger strike. Yesterday was the first day he drank water in
that amount of time. <br><br>
<b>JUAN GONZALEZ: </b>And these other grand juries, the targets or the
subjects of their investigation, does anyone know? Or <br><br>
<b>LAILA AL-ARIAN: </b>Well, it’s an Islamic think tank in Virginia. But
what we believe is it has nothing to do with this organization. This is
just a waythey couldn’t convict my father in court. This is a way for
them to convict him in other means. And it needs to stop. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Will Olson, you’re a lawyer in Virginia. If he
believed, when he was signing this plea agreement, that it meant he did
not have to testify before any future grand jury, how is it that he’s now
been called before a third grand jury? <br><br>
<b>WILL OLSON: </b>Well, the government’s position on the plea agreement
is that the non-cooperationthere was not a written non-cooperation
clause included in the written plea agreement. Dr. Al-Arian’s position
is, during the course of his plea negotiations with the Middle
Districtthe US attorney’s office for the Middle District of Florida,
that it was an understanding of the parties thatthroughout the
negotiation, a basic understanding of their agreement was that Dr.
Al-Arian would not cooperate with the government and that that was
underlying in the entire negotiation. <br><br>
When that plea agreement was formalized in writing, there was not a
clause that required Dr. Al-Arian to testify, and it’s standard in the
Middle District of Florida to have a clause that says that if you
agreethat if you are pleading to something, that you have to cooperate
with the government. That standard cooperation clause was omitted.
Unfortunately, there was not language included in the agreement that
states that Dr. Al-Arian is not obligated to corporate with the
government. <br><br>
When Dr. Al-Arian was called before the grand jury in Virginia, his legal
team moved to enforce the plea agreement in Florida to block his
appearance before the grand jury. The trial court in Florida, back in
November of 2006, denied that motion, that the trial court took the
position that because it was not in writing in the plea agreement, there
was not a clause for the plea agreement that he didn’t have to cooperate.
That decision was appealed to the 11th Circuit in Florida. That was
denied. But we are again appealing to the 11th Circuit, as a whole. The
way the procedure works is, once you’ve appealed to a panel of an
appellate court, a circuit court, and if you disagree with that opinion,
you can ask for the entire 11th Circuit to review the decision, and
that’s what we’ve done. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>Laila, we just have ten seconds. But your father’s
health right now? He’s a diabetic. It’s his second fast. He dropped
something like fifty pounds on his first. <br><br>
<b>LAILA AL-ARIAN: </b>His last, right. <br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>You just visited him in jail. He’s in a medical
clinic in the jail. <br><br>
<b>LAILA AL-ARIAN: </b>He’s lost thirty pounds. He’s very weak. He has
been having chest pains. And we’re just asking everyone to keep up with
this case, write letters to the Judiciary Committee in the House and
Senate. And for more information, they can go to
<a href="http://www.freesamialarian.com">freesamialarian.com</a>.
<br><br>
<b>AMY GOODMAN: </b>I want to thank you both for being with us, Will
Olson in Virginia and Laila Al-Arian, the eldest daughter of former
University of Southern Florida Professor Sami Al-Arian.<br><br>
<br><br>
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