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Detained Palestinian Goes to OAS to Charge US with Rights Violation
Palestinian activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti, detained by US immigration authorities for more than a year, is filing a human rights violation petition with the OAS's human rights commission.
Detained Palestinian Goes to OAS to Charge US with Rights Violations
May 28, 2003 - The legal team for Palestinian-born New York activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti is now preparing to file a human rights violation petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS) to protest Abdel-Muhti's detention by the US government for more than one year.
The US has been holding the activist in prison since April 2002, claiming that it is arranging his deportation. As a stateless Palestinian Abdel-Muhti is unlikely to be accepted by any country, according to his legal team, which filed a habeas corpus petition in Newark, New Jersey, in November 2002 based on the Supreme Court's decision in Zadvydas v. Davis that six months is a reasonable period of time for the INS to carry out a removal.
On May 16 federal district judge Faith S. Hochberg agreed to the government's request to have the habeas case moved to southern Pennsylvania, where Abdel-Muhti was transferred in February, apparently as punishment for his participation in a January hunger strike by detainees in Passaic County Jail in Paterson, New Jersey.
Abdel-Muhti's supporters say Hochberg's decision seriously impairs the case by forcing them to get a Pennsylvania lawyer and in effect start the process all over with a new judge. They note that Judge Hochberg is herself a former US attorney; she was admonished last year by the Third Circuit Court for her "prosecutorial tone" in grilling a defendant, according to the December 23, 2002 Federal Criminal Law Newsletter.
"This decision raises serious questions about whether immigrants, especially immigrants from the Middle East, can get justice in the US in the current climate," says National Lawyers Guild membership coordinator Macdonald Scott, a member of Abdel-Muhti's legal team. IACHR petitions are usually filed when the complainants claim they are being denied due process in their own countries. A famous current case is that of Lori Berenson, a New York-born activist who was originally sentenced to life imprisonment by a concealed judge in Peru under the regime of former president Alberto Fujimori.
Abdel-Muhti has been held in solitary since the end of February. He is locked down for more than 23 hours a day. He reports that guards taunt him and search his cell, allegedly for weapons. He is handcuffed and shackled when he is taken to the clinic or to see visitors. Abdel-Muhti suffers from high blood pressure and a number of other ailments; the prison doctor has told him he needs sunlight, exercise and a better diet. He will be 56 in August.
For more information:
Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti
PO Box 20587, Tompkins Square Station, New York, NY 10009
Telephone: 212-674-9499 Email: freefarouk-AT-yahoo.com
www.freefarouk.org
May 28, 2003 - The legal team for Palestinian-born New York activist Farouk Abdel-Muhti is now preparing to file a human rights violation petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS) to protest Abdel-Muhti's detention by the US government for more than one year.
The US has been holding the activist in prison since April 2002, claiming that it is arranging his deportation. As a stateless Palestinian Abdel-Muhti is unlikely to be accepted by any country, according to his legal team, which filed a habeas corpus petition in Newark, New Jersey, in November 2002 based on the Supreme Court's decision in Zadvydas v. Davis that six months is a reasonable period of time for the INS to carry out a removal.
On May 16 federal district judge Faith S. Hochberg agreed to the government's request to have the habeas case moved to southern Pennsylvania, where Abdel-Muhti was transferred in February, apparently as punishment for his participation in a January hunger strike by detainees in Passaic County Jail in Paterson, New Jersey.
Abdel-Muhti's supporters say Hochberg's decision seriously impairs the case by forcing them to get a Pennsylvania lawyer and in effect start the process all over with a new judge. They note that Judge Hochberg is herself a former US attorney; she was admonished last year by the Third Circuit Court for her "prosecutorial tone" in grilling a defendant, according to the December 23, 2002 Federal Criminal Law Newsletter.
"This decision raises serious questions about whether immigrants, especially immigrants from the Middle East, can get justice in the US in the current climate," says National Lawyers Guild membership coordinator Macdonald Scott, a member of Abdel-Muhti's legal team. IACHR petitions are usually filed when the complainants claim they are being denied due process in their own countries. A famous current case is that of Lori Berenson, a New York-born activist who was originally sentenced to life imprisonment by a concealed judge in Peru under the regime of former president Alberto Fujimori.
Abdel-Muhti has been held in solitary since the end of February. He is locked down for more than 23 hours a day. He reports that guards taunt him and search his cell, allegedly for weapons. He is handcuffed and shackled when he is taken to the clinic or to see visitors. Abdel-Muhti suffers from high blood pressure and a number of other ailments; the prison doctor has told him he needs sunlight, exercise and a better diet. He will be 56 in August.
For more information:
Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti
PO Box 20587, Tompkins Square Station, New York, NY 10009
Telephone: 212-674-9499 Email: freefarouk-AT-yahoo.com
www.freefarouk.org
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