Thu 11 Jan 2007
WHY IS THE GOVERNMENT SO AFRAID OF JUSTICE IN THE CASE OF DR. RAFIL DHAFIR?
Posted by k under Civil Liberties , Katherine's WritingNo Comments
Urgent Request For Funds To Buy Trial Transcripts:
In direct response to the humanitarian catastrophe created by the brutal U.S. and U.K. sponsored UN embargo on Iraq Dr. Rafil Dhafir started the charity Help the Needy (HTN). For 13 years he worked tirelessly to help publicize the plight of the Iraqi people and to raise funds to help them, according to the government he donated $1.25 million of his own money. As an oncologist he was particularly concerned about the effects of depleted uranium and skyrocketing Iraqi cancer rates. Because of this humanitatian work he has been incarcerated since February 26, 2003.
Bankrupting Dhafir was just one of the many tools the government employed to make it impossible for him to defend himself. They also held him without bail for 31 months and denied him access to his counsel and his own records. He is now serving 22 years in jail for a crime that he was never charged with in a court of law. Although convicted as a white-collar criminal, the government touts Dhafir’s case as a success in its “war on terror.”
In the most recent obstruction of justice in the case the government is attempting to reverse an appeal court decision to grant Dhafir transcripts at the court’s expense, and they are almost certain to be successful. Transcripts are the bedrock of an appeal process and will cost in the region of $22,000. It is 14 months since Dr. Dhafir’s sentencing and we have been unable to move forward with the appeal because we don’t have the transcripts.
The vigor of the government’s denial of due process from the outset of this case is disturbing. One can only wonder why despite the fact that the odds for a successful appeal are abysmal–a mere 5 percent–the government still feels it necessary to inhibit Dhafir’s quest for justice. During the McCarthy era, Judge Irving Kaufman warned, “Once we embark on shortcuts by creating a category of ‘obviously guilty’ whose rights are denied, we run the risk that the circle of the unprotected will grow.” It is incumbent upon each of us to defend civil liberties for all, not least because “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
Please help us achieve justice by sending a donation for any amount, no matter how small or large, to: Dhafir Appeal Fund.
Make checks payable to: Dr. Dhafir Appeal Fund and send them to Peter Goldberger Esq., Attorney at Law, 50 Rittenhouse Place, Ardmore, PA 19003. Please note that donations are not tax deductible.
Thank you,
Katherine Hughes
For the Dr. Dhafir Support Committee.
For more information about the case see my recent Fellowship (Fellowship of Reconciliation) article.
If you would like to join the Dr. Dhafir Support Committee contact:
MacGregor Eddy
P.O Box 5789
Salinas CA 93915
Email: mindful@redshift.com