Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace
April 12, 2008
VIRGINIA– At 1 a.m. on Saturday, Dr. Sami Al-Arian was moved by hostile prison guards from a regular holding cell at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup, Maryland, to the “Special Housing Unit.” The SHU is an extremely punitive and restrictive section of the prison where inmates are placed in solitary confinement 23 hours a day, usually in freezing temperatures. Prisoners are normally moved there for violating prison rules. However, in the case of Dr. Al-Arian, he has always been placed there without reason or any explanation. In the SHU, prisoners are subjected to continuous, deafening alarm sounds and have little contact with the outside world. With no medical supervision, this is an extremely dangerous place for Dr. Al-Arian to be during his hunger strike, which is on its 41st day. Dr. Al-Arian was also held in solitary confinement for 37 months before and during his trial. This was a deliberate attempt by the government to break him down physically and psychologically and to prevent him from preparing for his trial.
Amnesty International has written several letters decrying the prison conditions of Dr. Al-Arian, calling his treatment “gratuitously punitive” and “inconsistent with international standards for humane treatment.”
The Tampa Bay Coalition for Justice and Peace urges all conscientious individuals and organizations to contact the Howard County Detention Center and call for humane treatment of Dr. Al-Arian. We also call on media outlets to cover these abuses, which so far have received no attention.
TAKE ACTION
Call the Howard County Detention Center and ask that Dr. Al-Arian be removed from the Special Housing Unit, where he does not belong, and that the prison ensures he is given proper medical treatment during his hunger strike. The number is (410) 313-5200.
PRESS CONFERENCE ON TUESDAY TO DEMAND RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN
Press Release:
Contact: Dowoti Desir,
Executive Director
The Shabazz Center
ddesir@theshabazzcenter.org
Dept. of Justice Must Keep its Promise to Release Palestinian Professor on Hunger Strike
Press Conference:
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
To Demand the Release of Dr. Sami Al-Arian
Who: The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational and Cultural Center, American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights, and the Council on American Islamic Relations
WHAT: Press Conference to Call for the Release of Hunger Striking Palestinian Professor Sami Al-Arian
WHEN: Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 11 A.M.
WHERE: The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center
3940 Broadway, New York City, N.Y. 10032 (212) 568.1341
SPEAKERS:
THE HONORABLE RAMSEY CLARK
SARA FLOUNDER,Co-Director, The International Action Center
IMAM SIRAJ WAHAJ
IMAM TALIB ABDUR-RASHID, CAIR-NY Civil Rights Director, Sr.
HEIDI BOGHOSIAN, Executive Director of the National Lawyers’ Guild
ALIYA LATIF, Civil Rights Director Council on American-Islamic Relations
LAILA AL-ARIAN, Daughter of Sami Al-Arian
MALAAK SHABAZZ, Daughter of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz — Malcolm X
NEW YORK, NY. – Friday, April 11, is the scheduled release date of Dr. Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian professor on a hunger strike, who has been imprisoned for more than five years. But the Department of Justice, through its continuous abuse of the grand jury system, is threatening to keep him imprisoned for many years.
This Tuesday, April 15, at 11 A.M., American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections, hosted by the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational Center and Cultural Center, will hold a press conference to demand Dr. Al-Arian’s release as promised.
Sami Al-Arian, 50, was a tenured professor of computer engineering at the University of South Florida. He was arrested in February 2003 with much fanfare, and charged in a bloated terrorism conspiracy case. A jury acquitted him of the most serious charges in December 2005. Under a plea agreement reached in 2006, Dr. Al-Arian should have been released last April at the latest. By forcing him to testify, prosecutors are violating that agreement. For more on the case, please visit www.freesaminow.com
Dr. Al-Arian began a hunger strike on March 3 to protest continued government harassment. That day, Dr. Al-Arian was informed that he would be called to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. “The mistreatment of Dr. Al-Arian is part of the overall oppression of the Palestinian people. This is cruel punishment,” said Agha Saeed, chairman of the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT). “The government is playing a cat and mouse game with him. They did not decide to do this until the last minute, just as he’s about to be released. This amounts to psychological torture.”
“Malcolm X stated, “Any person who claims to have deep feelings for other human beings should think a long, long time before he votes to have other men kept behind bars – caged. Behind the bars, a man never reforms – he can’t forget those bars.” The past decades have been marred by the erosion of civil liberties and the systemic silencing through incarceration, torture, and deportation of non-conformist voices. Unfortunately our brothers and sisters in the Islamic community are the latest victims of such practices. The continued, unwarranted incarceration of Dr. Al-Arian is a violation of his human rights.” Dowoti Desir, Executive Director, The Shabazz Center.
If you’d like more information on this topic, please visit www.freesaminow.com, or to schedule an interview with any of the speakers at the press conference, please call 212-568.1341 or email ddesir@theshabazzcenter.org
PUBLIC RADIO PROGRAM COVERS AL-ARIAN CASE:
Please click on the link below to listen:
http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/sot0408c08.mp3/mediafile_view