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The Ledger - Published Friday, October 31, 2003
Al-Arian's new attorney protesting conditions of confinement
By VICKIE CHACHERE
Associated Press Writer
TAMPA, Fla. A prominent Washington attorney taking on the defense of a former professor indicted on charges he raised money for Islamic terrorists said Friday his first challenge to the government is to justify the conditions under which his client is being held.
William B. Moffitt said the U.S. Justice Department's insistence that Sami Al-Arian be held under strict confinement at a federal prison northeast of Tampa is violating Al-Arian's right to assist in his own defense. A hearing will be held Nov. 7 in U.S. District Court in Tampa on the matter.
Moffitt said Al-Arian, who faces a 50-count indictment that he used an academic think tank and a charity at the University of South Florida as fronts for financing the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, is being treated as if he has already been convicted of a crime. Al-Arian is housed in the same unit as inmates who have assaulted corrections officers or other prisoners and are considered too dangerous to be held elsewhere.
Al-Arian should not be held in any different manner than any other person accused of a crime, Moffitt said he intends to argue. Al-Arian is being held without bail while he awaits a January 2005 trial.
"Is this community so prejudiced and biased against Sami Al-Arian that they think that is appropriate?" Moffitt said in a news conference held after briefly meeting with Al-Arian at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Sumter County.
Moffitt, joined by co-counsel and Tampa attorney Linda Moreno, scattered a bag of stubby pencils onto a table to illustrate to reporters how prison officials even control the most basic tools Al-Arian needs to prepare his own defense.
"This man is presumed innocent," Moffitt said. "Is this community willing to give him that presumption?"
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031031/APN/310310617
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