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April 29, 2008
Dr. Al-Arian suspends hunger strike after 8 weeks
VIRGINIA – On the 57th day of his hunger strike, Dr. Sami Al-Arian yesterday suspended his fast, at the urging of his family, friends and supporters, Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace, announced on April 29.
Dr. Al-Arian, who has lost more than 40 pounds, began the hunger strike on March 3 to protest continued harassment and abuse of power by the Justice Department. Early last week, as his blood pressure and blood sugar reached dangerously low levels, Dr. Al-Arian collapsed and lost consciousness at his cell in Hampton Roads Regional Jail and was then examined by a doctor. Dr. Al-Arian drank no water for the first 18 days of his fast. During his hunger strike, he was moved to five different facilities a half dozen times.
Dr. Al-Arian was supposed to have been released on April 7. Since April 14, he has been in total segregation, and living under harsh conditions. He is not allowed any visitors and is given only two phone calls a month. Though officials at Hampton Roads Regional Jail told Dr. Al-Arian his conditions would improve and he would be moved into the general population as soon as he began eating again, this has proven to be a lie. Dr. Al-Arian remains in segregation although he has been cleared medically. Please see the Action Alert below to demand that he be treated humanely.
"Today Dr. Sami Al-Arian is an internationally recognized political prisoner in America Over the last two decades, his legendry struggle for the independence of Palestine has included five years of incarceration, which continues, and two extended hunger strikes for sixty days and fifty-seven days, respectively, " said Dr. Agha Saeed, chair of the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections. "Just as Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X symbolized the struggle for human rights in the fifties and sixties, Dr. Sami Al Arian has come to symbolize the current struggle for human rights. I am one of those who had beseeched him to end his hunger strike and I am personally indebted to him for accepting our request."
"Sami Al-Arian has put his own life on the line for human dignity, freedom, justice and peace," said Muhammad Salim Akhtar, chairman of American Muslim Alliance Midwest Region. "His resilience at the cost of his own physical and mental suffering has become a source of strength for people of conscience and high morals to unite across borders."
For the past three weeks, ICE has been claiming that the deportation process has been slowed down because of Dr. Al-Arian's hunger strike. Following passionate appeal from his family, friends, and supporters, and on strong advice of his counsel, Dr. Al-Arian has also suspended his hunger strike so as not to allow any further delays or excuses in his deportation.
"The political persecution of Dr. Al Arian will forever be a dark stain on our nation's history; a stain reminiscent of the Palmer Raids, the McCarthy era and COINTELPRO," said Mahdi Bray, executive director of MAS Freedom. "Never convicted of a crime by a jury of his peers and after an agreement with the US government for deportation, Dr. Al Arian still remains inhumanely incarcerated. Who within our government has the courage to right this cold and calculated injustice?"
"Anybody can understand that this about basic fairness. You don't just keep adding jail time arbitrarily, " said Warren Clark, pastor of First United Church (UCC) of Tampa. Referring to the prison's ban of letters to Dr. Al-Arian, Clark said, "They are disallowing people of faith that want to accompany him. That is disrespectful of humanity. We call upon our government to be respectful of these basic core values of humanity."
Peter Erlinder, former president of the National Lawyers Guild said: " On May 1, 2006, the Bush Justice Department publicly recommended that Dr. Al Arian be released and deported without delay, in order to claim a legal victory. The continued detention of Dr. Al Arian under inhumane conditions is psychological and physical torture, intended to break the spirit of an American civil-liberties and human rights hero. Free Sami Al Arian, NOW!"
On April 15, a national press conference to demand the immediate release of Dr. Sami Al-Arian was held at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and Cultural Center in Harlem.
Speakers at the press conference for Al-Arian represented prominent Muslim and civil rights organizations. They included Laila Al-Arian, his daughter; Malaak Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz; Ramsey Clark and Sara Flounders of the International Action Center; Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid and Aliya Latif of the Council on American-Islamic Relations; Heidi Boghosian of the National Lawyers Guild; Ghazi Khan Khan of the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights; Mahdi Brey of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation; and Muhammad Salim Akhtar of the American Muslim Alliance.
Al-Arian, a tenured professor at the University of South Florida, was arrested in 2003. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft trumpeted it as the “arrest of the most dangerous financier of Islamic Jihad in the Western world.”
This case of a Palestinian who raised funds for orphans and charities back home is viewed as one of the most extreme examples of racist and anti-Muslim persecution. The Justice Department has spent $50 million prosecuting the case. After a six-month trial, a jury found no evidence that any crime had been committed.
Despite the verdict and in violation of the terms of release and deportation set by the Justice Department, the authorities have continued to refuse to release Al-Arian. Instead, they have demanded that he give testimony against others. This he has courageously refused to do. They are vindictively threatening to keep him in prison for years in a flagrant abuse of the grand jury system.
Now Al-Arian is being held in isolation and transferred from one holding facility to another in a seriously weakened state, without any medical monitoring. His daughter reported that even his family does not know where he is currently being held.
Supporters were urged to call, write and/or sign the on-line petition to demand Al-Arian’s release and that the departments of Justice and Immigration adhere to their responsibility for the health and life of prisoners held in their custody. The petition and more information are available at the Web site www.FreeSamiNow.com
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