Baltimore IMC : http://www.baltimoreimc.org
LOCAL News :: Civil & Human Rights
NY Palestinian Activist in Segregation in York, PA
US immigration authorities have stepped up their campaign to isolate and silence NY-base Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti, now in segregation in York County Prison in York, PA.
US Puts Palestinian Activist in Segregation,
Tries to Move Habeas Case Out of New York Area
Immigrant rights activists charge that US immigration authorities are now engaged in a systematic campaign to isolate and silence New York-based Palestinian rights advocate Farouk Abdel-Muhti, who has been in prison for nearly a year in what the US claims is an effort to carry out a 1995 final order of deportation.
-- On Feb. 19 immigration authorities moved Abdel-Muhti from Passaic County Jail in Paterson, NJ, to York County Prison in York, PA, a four-hour drive from the New York area, where Abdel-Muhti's friends, family, defense committee and legal team are based.
-- On Feb. 26 the York prison authorities placed Abdel-Muhti in a maximum security segregation unit, where each of 16 prisoners is kept alone in a cell behind steel doors for over 23 hours a day. The jail could give no reason for this treatment of Abdel-Muhti, who has been cooperative during his 10 months of detention by the immigration authorities and has even acted as a peacemaker when conflicts arose among immigrant detainees.
-- On Feb. 28 US Attorney for the New Jersey District Christopher J. Christie announced that on Mar. 24 he will move to have Abdel-Muhti's pending habeas corpus case transferred from the US court in Newark to the middle ditrict of Pennsylvania. Abdel-Muhti filed a habeas petition in November charging that as a stateless
Palestinian he cannot easily be deported and that his protracted detention is therefore unlawful. A change of venue would add new obstacles and delays to Abdel-Muhti and his legal team in pursuing the case.
"These maneuvers by the authorities give the lie to their claims that this is a routine immigration case," said David L. Wilson, a member of Abdel-Muhti's support committee. "The fact is that the Bush administration has singled Farouk out because of his advocacy for Palestinian causes, as part of a general crackdown on the growing opposition to Bush's policies at home and abroad."
A well-known activist in a number of causes, Abdel-Muhti was arrested on Apr. 26, 2002, one month after he began working regularly at New York community radio station WBAI arranging interviews with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. He has continued his organizing efforts since his arrest. In addition to giving a number of interviews to mainstream and alternative media on the conditions of immigrant detainees, Abdel-Muhti was among more than 75 immigrant detainees who signed a statement last fall
denouncing the US immigration policies and conditions in the Passaic County Jail. In January he was one of six detainees who carried out an eight-day hunger strike to protest their detention and jail conditions.
Wilson says that the stepped-up harassment of Abdel-Muhti has increased interest in his case among activist circles nationally. Last week the Palestinian's supporters began a national petition campaign to demand Abdel-Muhti's release; the petitions are addressed to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE), which took over enforcement functions on Mar. 1 when the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was brought into the new Homeland Security Department.
Abdel-Muhti's supporters are also planning a series of protests. These include a rally to be held outside the York County Prison at 3400 Concord Road in York, PA, at 1 pm on Friday, Mar. 7, and a national day of action on Apr. 25 to mark the 365th day of Abdel-Muhti's imprisonment.
-- 30 --
=========================================================
How YOU Can Help:
Call, fax or email David J. Venturella, who heads the Office of Detention and Removal, to protest the government's inhumane and illegal actions, and to demand Farouk's immediate release:
Send your messages to:
David J. Venturella, Assistant Deputy Executive Associate
Commissioner, Office of Detention & Removal
tel 202-305-2734
fax 202-353-9435
email David.j.venturella-AT-usdoj.gov
PLEASE send copies of your correspondence to the Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti at freefarouk-AT-yahoo.com
JOIN the protest on Friday, Mar. 7. CONTACT US FOR DETAILS, especially if you have a car or if you have contacts closer to York. (York is nearly two hours west of Philadelphia and about an hour north of Baltimore.) If you are in NYC and can't go to York, please come to the regular weekly vigil at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, Friday at noon.
CONTACT us for copies on the petition. Please print it out and get signatures; return it to us and we'll fax it to Venturella. Specify whether you want PDC, Word or plain text format.
WRITE to Farouk:
Farouk Abdel-Muhti #75122
York County Prison
3400 Concord Road
York, PA 17402-9580
Tries to Move Habeas Case Out of New York Area
Immigrant rights activists charge that US immigration authorities are now engaged in a systematic campaign to isolate and silence New York-based Palestinian rights advocate Farouk Abdel-Muhti, who has been in prison for nearly a year in what the US claims is an effort to carry out a 1995 final order of deportation.
-- On Feb. 19 immigration authorities moved Abdel-Muhti from Passaic County Jail in Paterson, NJ, to York County Prison in York, PA, a four-hour drive from the New York area, where Abdel-Muhti's friends, family, defense committee and legal team are based.
-- On Feb. 26 the York prison authorities placed Abdel-Muhti in a maximum security segregation unit, where each of 16 prisoners is kept alone in a cell behind steel doors for over 23 hours a day. The jail could give no reason for this treatment of Abdel-Muhti, who has been cooperative during his 10 months of detention by the immigration authorities and has even acted as a peacemaker when conflicts arose among immigrant detainees.
-- On Feb. 28 US Attorney for the New Jersey District Christopher J. Christie announced that on Mar. 24 he will move to have Abdel-Muhti's pending habeas corpus case transferred from the US court in Newark to the middle ditrict of Pennsylvania. Abdel-Muhti filed a habeas petition in November charging that as a stateless
Palestinian he cannot easily be deported and that his protracted detention is therefore unlawful. A change of venue would add new obstacles and delays to Abdel-Muhti and his legal team in pursuing the case.
"These maneuvers by the authorities give the lie to their claims that this is a routine immigration case," said David L. Wilson, a member of Abdel-Muhti's support committee. "The fact is that the Bush administration has singled Farouk out because of his advocacy for Palestinian causes, as part of a general crackdown on the growing opposition to Bush's policies at home and abroad."
A well-known activist in a number of causes, Abdel-Muhti was arrested on Apr. 26, 2002, one month after he began working regularly at New York community radio station WBAI arranging interviews with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. He has continued his organizing efforts since his arrest. In addition to giving a number of interviews to mainstream and alternative media on the conditions of immigrant detainees, Abdel-Muhti was among more than 75 immigrant detainees who signed a statement last fall
denouncing the US immigration policies and conditions in the Passaic County Jail. In January he was one of six detainees who carried out an eight-day hunger strike to protest their detention and jail conditions.
Wilson says that the stepped-up harassment of Abdel-Muhti has increased interest in his case among activist circles nationally. Last week the Palestinian's supporters began a national petition campaign to demand Abdel-Muhti's release; the petitions are addressed to the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE), which took over enforcement functions on Mar. 1 when the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was brought into the new Homeland Security Department.
Abdel-Muhti's supporters are also planning a series of protests. These include a rally to be held outside the York County Prison at 3400 Concord Road in York, PA, at 1 pm on Friday, Mar. 7, and a national day of action on Apr. 25 to mark the 365th day of Abdel-Muhti's imprisonment.
-- 30 --
=========================================================
How YOU Can Help:
Call, fax or email David J. Venturella, who heads the Office of Detention and Removal, to protest the government's inhumane and illegal actions, and to demand Farouk's immediate release:
Send your messages to:
David J. Venturella, Assistant Deputy Executive Associate
Commissioner, Office of Detention & Removal
tel 202-305-2734
fax 202-353-9435
email David.j.venturella-AT-usdoj.gov
PLEASE send copies of your correspondence to the Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti at freefarouk-AT-yahoo.com
JOIN the protest on Friday, Mar. 7. CONTACT US FOR DETAILS, especially if you have a car or if you have contacts closer to York. (York is nearly two hours west of Philadelphia and about an hour north of Baltimore.) If you are in NYC and can't go to York, please come to the regular weekly vigil at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, Friday at noon.
CONTACT us for copies on the petition. Please print it out and get signatures; return it to us and we'll fax it to Venturella. Specify whether you want PDC, Word or plain text format.
WRITE to Farouk:
Farouk Abdel-Muhti #75122
York County Prison
3400 Concord Road
York, PA 17402-9580
Views
Information
Search
This site made manifest by dadaIMC software