More than two weeks after a federal judge granted Dr. Al-Arian bond, the government has stepped up its abuse of America's high-profile prisoner of conscience.

       Having already prevented Dr. Al-Arian from enjoying even this small concession of justice by placing him under 23-hour lock-down in a prison several hours away from his attorneys, prison officials have become even more brazen in their attempt to psychologically break Dr. Al-Arian by disrupting his already limited phone contact with his family and by flat-out denying his children their requests to visit their father.

       Yesterday morning, Dr. Al-Arian was only allowed twenty minutes of phone time and not the full hour accorded to all other inmates. Not only that, Dr. Al-Arian was granted his phone time during the hour reserved for "high-risk" prisoners, even though Dr. Al-Arian - as a federal judge recently announced in a US court of law - is most certainly not a danger to anyone. Furthermore, Dr. Al-Arian's phone call was constantly disrupted by heavy static and clicks which made it all but impossible for Dr. Al-Arian to communicate with his family.

       Dr. Al-Arian's family has been denied their right to visit their father since July 12th. The last prison rejected mutliple such requests, while the current prison has denied visitation for this week, claiming that Dr. Al-Arian failed to read and sign a particular booklet which he was never actually shown. Given the government's history of mistreating Dr. Al-Arian, it is indeed difficult not to conclude that this is nothing more than an unlawful attempt to psychologically break Dr. Al-Arian before his pending trial.

Friends, stand with us in protest of this outrageous abuse by making the following two calls:

 

1. Vincent Archibeque, Assistant Field Office Director for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (703 285-6221). Ask Mr. Archibeque why he is preventing Dr. Al-Arian from leaving prison before his trial despite the clear and unambiguous decision of a federal judge that Dr. Al-Arian is not a threat and should be granted bail.
 

2. Pamunkey Regional Jail: (804) 365-6400 (press 4 then 3001 and ask to speak to the Superintendent's office; press 0 after regular business hours). Ask why Dr. Al-Arian has been put under a 23-hour lockdown, why his calls are being disrupted, and why his family is not allowed to visit him. For a list of false excuses the prison may offer and the response to them, please click here.

 

 

- If you do not reach the prison superintendent or Mr. Archibeque personally, leave a message on the answering machine. Call back every day until you do speak to the superintendent directly.

       On July 12th, Judge Leonie Brinkema pronounced that Dr. Al-Arian was not a danger to the community nor a flight risk, and accordingly granted him bail before his scheduled August 13th trial. Nevertheless, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) invoked the jurisdiction it has held over Dr. Al-Arian since his official sentence ended last April to keep him from leaving prison. The ICE is ostensibly holding Dr. Al-Arian to complete deportation procedures but, given that Dr. Al-Arian's trial will take place in less than three weeks, it would seem somewhat unlikely that the ICE will follow through with such procedures in the near future.

       Not content to merely keep Dr. Al-Arian from enjoying even a very limited stint of freedom, the government is using all available means to try to psychologically break him. Instead of keeping him in a prison close to the Washington DC area where his two oldest children live, the ICE has moved him to Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, VA, more than one hundred miles from the capital. Regardless, even when Dr. Al-Arian was relatively close to his children, they were repeatedly denied visitation requests.

       More critically, this distance makes it extremely difficult for Dr. Al-Arian to meet with his attorneys in the final weeks before his upcoming trial. This is the same tactic employed by the government in 2005 to try to prevent Dr. Al-Arian from being able to prepare a full defense.

       Pamunkey Regional Jail has imposed a 23-hour lock-down on Dr. Al-Arian and has placed him in complete isolation, despite promises from the ICE that he would be kept with the general inmate population. Furthermore, the guards who transported him were abusive, shackling and handcuffing him behind his back for the 2.5-hour drive, callously disregarding the fact that his wrist had been badly injured only a few days ago. Although he was in great pain throughout the trip, guards refused to loosen the handcuffs.       
       At the very moment when Dr. Al-Arian should be enjoying a brief interlude of freedom after five grueling years of imprisonment, the government has once again brazenly manipulated the justice system to deliver this cruel slap in the face of not only Dr. Al-Arian, but of all people of conscience. 

       Friends, we are asking you to make a difference again by calling:

 

Pamunkey Regional Jail: (804) 365-6400 (press 0 then ask to speak to the Superintendent's office). Ask why Dr. Al-Arian has been put under a 23-hour lockdown, despite the fact that a federal judge has clearly and unambiguously pronounced that he is not a danger to anyone and that, on the contrary, he should be allowed bail before his trial.

 

- If you do not reach the superintendent personally, leave a message on the answering machine. Call back every day until you do speak to the superintendent directly.