Sent to Rep. Eshoo, Senators Boxer & Feinstein, 2-5-2007

5, February 2007 Sent to Rep. Eshoo, Senators Boxer & Feinstein, 
As a longtime member of Amnesty International, I am writing out of profound concern over the arrest and confinement of Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Al-Arian is an esteemed professor currently confined to a federal prison. He has been the target of an unrelenting U.S. government campaign of physical deprivation, legal harassment and psychological torture. Over a year ago, after a six-month trial, a Florida jury acquitted him and his co-defendants of sensational and biased charges of being “terrorists.” Yet Al-Arian remains in prison under the most horrific conditions. For more than two years before his trial was scheduled, he was held at a maximum security federal prison in solitary confinement, denied regular contact with his family, with limited legal consultation and medical care and restricted ability to practice his religion.

Despite a steady torrent of prejudicial media accounts and the expenditure of millions of dollars to make the government case against Al-Arian, on Dec. 6, 2005, 12 jurors found no evidence to convict him of more than 90 possible charges, Al-Arian was nevertheless returned to his grim prison cell with no date set for a new. Many of his supporters believe that his innocence had been firmly established and that his wife and five children would soon be reunited with their husband and father.

However, in May 2006 the Florida trial judge rejected the jury’s findings, ignored the plea agreement, declared Al-Arian “a liar” and “a terrorist,” and sentenced him to the maximum prison term. The U.S. government has since moved Al-Arian around the country from prison to prison, often in the dead of night, leaving his whereabouts unknown to his family and legal team. The U.S. government has since moved Al-Arian around the country from prison to prison, often in the dead of night, leaving his whereabouts unknown to his family and legal team. So Al-Arian has begun a hunger strike. He is a diabetic and his health has suffered greatly during the harsh conditions of his almost four-year incarceration. Nevertheless, he has steadfastly maintained his support for the Palestinian people and their right to struggle against occupation.

I call upon your immediate intervention and ask that you demand the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Sami Al-Arian. His continual incarceration is a travesty and makes a mockery of our claim to be a law abiding nation.