an "endless nightmare"
this just breaks my heart. i didn't know he was on a hunger strike... i didn't even know he had struck a plea. have sort of lost touch with the case (you know, baby and all). last i remember he was acquitted of all, or at least most, charges, but they were finding some ridiculous pretexts to keep him imprisoned and the feds were trying to retry him on some of the counts. i guess that was a while ago. i have some memories of this mild-mannered man from when i was a reporter for islamonline, back when he was in DC fighting for his brother-in-law's release from detention on "secret evidence." and memories of the frustrated admiration i felt for his tenacity in making use of the system that, as his daughter says in the article below, is now "failing him." and more admiration yet for his family - for his kids, struggling and achieving the way they did despite the hell they were going through.
what does it take to push a man to this point?
i can't even begin to imagine. may Allah help him and his family find justice and peace. may Allah have mercy on them and bring him home to them at last.
Al-Arian transferred to prison hospital amid 24-day hunger strike
MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer
(AP) - McLEAN, Virginia
A former university professor who pleaded guilty last year to supporting a Palestinian terror group was transferred to a medical prison Wednesday as he entered the fourth week of a hunger strike.
Sami al-Arian, 49, began the hunger strike Jan. 22 to protest efforts to force him to testify in front of a grand jury investigating a group of Muslim charities in Virginia. He said a plea bargain with U.S. prosecutors last year frees him from any obligation to cooperate with the government.
Nikki Credic, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said prison officials have been monitoring his health daily.
Prosecutors obtained a court order late last week approving the transfer, al-Arian’s lawyer said, adding that the real motivation may have been to move al-Arian to a more isolated location.
Al-Arian’s daughter Laila said her father fainted and hit his head Tuesday, and that he has lost 30 pounds (13.5 kilograms) since beginning the hunger strike, during which he is only drinking four glasses of water a day.
“We’re definitely worried about him, but we respect why he chose to go on a hunger strike,” she said. “You understand it when you sort of feel like you’re cornered and you feel like the legal system is failing you.”
Al-Arian was a prominent Palestinian activist who met with U.S. President George W. Bush and other political leaders in the years before he was charged.
Al-Arian has said he believes the effort to bring him in front of the grand jury is merely a trap by an overzealous U.S. prosecutor.
“I think it’s just a pretext to hold me either in contempt or charge me with perjury, because whatever I’m going to say, they’re going to say, ‘You lied,’” al-Arian said in a jailhouse interview earlier this month with Democracy Now!, an independent media outlet.
But two U.S. judges have sided with prosecutors and said al-Arian must testify.
Because a judge has found al-Arian in contempt, every day he serves on the contempt charge extends his release date on a 57-month prison term handed down as part the plea for providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Prosecutors had sought to prove al-Arian was a leader of PIJ, a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel. The trial ended with acquittal on some charges and a hung jury on the rest.
Al-Arian’s lawyer, Peter Erlinder, said his client’s fear of a perjury trap is valid given the aggressive tactics employed by federal prosecutors in Alexandria, who have handled numerous high-profile terrorism cases in recent years.
Just two weeks ago, prosecutors won a perjury conviction against Sabri Benkahla, 31.
Benkahla had been one of just two defendants to win acquittal among more than a dozen who faced terror-related charges at the Alexandria courthouse since Sept. 11, 2001. Shortly after his acquittal in 2004, prosecutors said he lied in grand jury testimony about his training with a Pakistani militant group and charged him with perjury. He now faces up to 25 years in prison.
The civil contempt sentence al-Arian is now serving could run through June, or until the judge decides that further incarceration is unlikely to coerce al-Arian’s testimony. But even then, prosecutors can seek another six-month term if they extend the grand jury and subpoena al-Arian again.
“It just feels like an endless nightmare,” Laila al-Arian said. “It feels like purgatory.”
what does it take to push a man to this point?
i can't even begin to imagine. may Allah help him and his family find justice and peace. may Allah have mercy on them and bring him home to them at last.
Al-Arian transferred to prison hospital amid 24-day hunger strike
MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer
(AP) - McLEAN, Virginia
A former university professor who pleaded guilty last year to supporting a Palestinian terror group was transferred to a medical prison Wednesday as he entered the fourth week of a hunger strike.
Sami al-Arian, 49, began the hunger strike Jan. 22 to protest efforts to force him to testify in front of a grand jury investigating a group of Muslim charities in Virginia. He said a plea bargain with U.S. prosecutors last year frees him from any obligation to cooperate with the government.
Nikki Credic, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marshals Service, said prison officials have been monitoring his health daily.
Prosecutors obtained a court order late last week approving the transfer, al-Arian’s lawyer said, adding that the real motivation may have been to move al-Arian to a more isolated location.
Al-Arian’s daughter Laila said her father fainted and hit his head Tuesday, and that he has lost 30 pounds (13.5 kilograms) since beginning the hunger strike, during which he is only drinking four glasses of water a day.
“We’re definitely worried about him, but we respect why he chose to go on a hunger strike,” she said. “You understand it when you sort of feel like you’re cornered and you feel like the legal system is failing you.”
Al-Arian was a prominent Palestinian activist who met with U.S. President George W. Bush and other political leaders in the years before he was charged.
Al-Arian has said he believes the effort to bring him in front of the grand jury is merely a trap by an overzealous U.S. prosecutor.
“I think it’s just a pretext to hold me either in contempt or charge me with perjury, because whatever I’m going to say, they’re going to say, ‘You lied,’” al-Arian said in a jailhouse interview earlier this month with Democracy Now!, an independent media outlet.
But two U.S. judges have sided with prosecutors and said al-Arian must testify.
Because a judge has found al-Arian in contempt, every day he serves on the contempt charge extends his release date on a 57-month prison term handed down as part the plea for providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
Prosecutors had sought to prove al-Arian was a leader of PIJ, a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel. The trial ended with acquittal on some charges and a hung jury on the rest.
Al-Arian’s lawyer, Peter Erlinder, said his client’s fear of a perjury trap is valid given the aggressive tactics employed by federal prosecutors in Alexandria, who have handled numerous high-profile terrorism cases in recent years.
Just two weeks ago, prosecutors won a perjury conviction against Sabri Benkahla, 31.
Benkahla had been one of just two defendants to win acquittal among more than a dozen who faced terror-related charges at the Alexandria courthouse since Sept. 11, 2001. Shortly after his acquittal in 2004, prosecutors said he lied in grand jury testimony about his training with a Pakistani militant group and charged him with perjury. He now faces up to 25 years in prison.
The civil contempt sentence al-Arian is now serving could run through June, or until the judge decides that further incarceration is unlikely to coerce al-Arian’s testimony. But even then, prosecutors can seek another six-month term if they extend the grand jury and subpoena al-Arian again.
“It just feels like an endless nightmare,” Laila al-Arian said. “It feels like purgatory.”
posted by Ayesha | 11:13 AM
3 Comments:
Yes baitee
I think we are going to fast on 22nd or 23rd of February . This may be a nationwide or at least in Raleigh community thing to join with Prof. Al-Arian.
May Allah help him. He must be pretty strong in faith mashs-Allah
Maybe others in NC may know more about the fast (one day fast)
Salamaat,
This is so sad. May God grant them all a way out. How can our administration keep justifying itself?
Human beings following Iblees have become beasts.
Allah has promised not to leave the followers alone, however, He tests them.
May Allah help them out and not allow to be put on them the burden that they can not lift. Aameen.
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