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N.Y. Palestinian activist freed from U.S. prison nightmare
By Marty Goodman
In an important victory for civil liberties, Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a New
York
City-based Palestinian activist, was released from prison April 12
after 718
days of incarceration.
While in prison Abdel-Muhti was beaten several times by racist prison
guards
and held in solitary confinement for over 250 days for his radical
political
views and prison organizing.
Farouk's arrest on April 26, 2002, occurred a month after he had become
a
regular guest on New York's non-profit WBAI-Pacifica radio. His
telephone
hook-ups with Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories revealed
the
brutal realities of apartheid rule.
Abdel-Muhti was arrested on an outstanding 1995 deportation order that
was
ignored for years until the Bush administration's racist post 9-11
round-up
of Palestinians, Muslims, and South Asians. Farouk had been living in
the
U.S. for over 30 years.
On April 8, Federal District Judge Yvette Kane in Harrisburg, Pa.,
issued an
order for the government to free Abdel-Muhti. Judge Kane, calling his
case
"Kafkaesque," ruled that the Bush administration had violated a June
2001
Supreme Court decision in Zadvydas v. Davis, which requires immigration
to
release detainees who prove undeportable after six months.
Civil liberties attorneys say the Bush administration moved quickly to
obstruct the 2001 Supreme Court ruling.
Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights, the lead
attorney
in the Abdel-Muhti case, said, "Farouk was clearly targeted for arrest
because of his activism and outspokenness."
Farouk is a stateless Palestinian born in 1947 in Ramallah in the West
Bank.
He left before the 1967 Israeli takeover and has been unable to obtain
travel documents from Israel, Jordan, or the Palestinian National
Authority,
which would have enabled the U.S. to deport him.
In celebration of Farouk's release, the Committee for the Release of
Farouk
Abdel-Muhti sponsored a May 22 reception in New York City. The event
was
attended by some 100 supporters and speakers, which included activists
in
the Palestinian struggle, the Puerto Rican independence and Native
American
movements, and international supporters. Also on hand was embattled
civil-liberties attorney Lynne Stewart, currently fighting her own
frame-up
on charges of "aiding terrorism."
U.S. PRISONS ARE "FASCIST, FASCIST, FASCIST."
cialist Action reporter Marty Goodman sat down recently with
Abdel-Muhti
in his New York apartment to talk about his arrest and his prison
nightmare.
This is Goodman’s report.
Farouk described his arrest: "A task force of about 18 officers came at
4:45
in the morning. They said, 'There's a terrorist cell and explosives
here.'
They told my roommate to 'shut your mouth or we'll drop you out of the
window.'
"They asked me for information about Palestinian organizations,
especially
the Islamic groups, and Al Qaeda. They said, 'If you don't cooperate
we'll
send you to Israel and let the Mossad [Israeli intelligence] take care
of
you.' I told them I never sell my principles."
Farouk was then taken to U.S. immigration in downtown Manhattan, where
"they
asked me questions and beat me for no reason."
No "terrorism" charges were ever brought against Farouk, but from the
moment
of his arrest, he refused to cooperate in any way with the Bush
administration's thought police.
For almost two years Farouk was shuttled from prison to prison for a
total
of nine jails within New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. This made
legal
representation for his New York attorneys extremely difficult. His
Arab-language documents were never returned, and in a bureaucratic
shuffle
his name was changed 27 times. One cop thug put a gun in his face
during a
jail transfer while another cop took pictures.
Farouk called U.S. jails "fascist, fascist, fascist."
Farouk, 56 years old, told me, "The physical torture and psychological
torture created thyroid problems, gastritis, arthritis, and high blood
pressure, which originated with the torture." Proper medical care, even
after beatings, was consistently denied, he said.
While in prison Farouk was sometimes able to receive radical
newspapers,
which included Socialist Action, The Militant, the Partisan Defense
Committee newsletter, and The Revolutionary Worker. He circulated them
among
inmates and "got the majority on our side," he said.
Referring to his time in the Bergen County, N.J., prison, Farouk said,
"I
can't tell you how I suffered there from the beginning. They said [of
him],
‘This is Osama. This is a terrorist.’ The guards were especially
angered by
his radical periodicals. "They called me a communist and anti-American,
beat
me, and put me in solitary confinement."
In the York County, Pa., jail, beating immigrant prisoners was common.
Farouk says, "The deputy warden has a picture of Benito Mussolini [the
Italian dictator allied with Nazi Germany] in his office right
alongside
pictures of his daughters!" "They chained my hands and feet when people
came
to visit me."
"In Passaic County [N.J.] jail, I got 78 detainees from 46 countries to
sign
a statement demanding their rights. The commissary prices were too
high, the
telephone is $5.99 for a collect call. Forty-three people went on a
hunger
strike for 48 hours. I continued the strike with five other people from
several countries to give them their rights. I was the only one to
continue
on the hunger strike for the right of release. [For that] they put me
in
‘the box’ for 16 days."
"When I see the torture in Iraq and Palestine and the torture in the
United
States it’s exactly the same!"
Throughout his ordeal Abdel-Muhti maintained a focus on other people's
struggles. He corresponded with other political prisoners, including
Mumia
Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier, and striking miners. Upon his release,
Farouk
said, "We won a victory, but still we have to win the war for justice
for
immigrants and all people in the nation fighting for democratic rights
and
social justice."
The article above first appeared in the June 2004 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.
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