DhafirTrial

Dr. Dhafir has been in prison 15 months since his sentencing (47 months since he was arrested) and we have been unable to move forward with the appeal because we don’t have the transcripts essential to the appeal process.The government is contesting an award by the appeal court to grant Dhafir transcripts at the expense of the court and it will be too costly and time consuming for us to fight this. (more…)

Dr. Dhafir and the Help the Needy case are covered in “Satanic Purses: Money, Myth, And Misinformation in the War on Terror.”Thomas Naylor, McGill-Queen’s University Press (August 3, 2006).

Chapter 14: Neither to Give nor to Receive — Requiem for Islamic Charity in the US? (more…)

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. (more…)

An inteview with me about Dr. Dhafir’s case will air today on Portland, Oregon radio station KBOO. It will air at 12.45pm Eastern Standard Time and is available online here: KBOO

For a good background article on the case see Fellowship of Reconciliation

WRITE TO DR. DHAFIR: Rafil Dhafir, 11921-052, FCI Terre Haute, P.O. Box 33, Terre Haute, IN 47808

Dr. Dhafir was moved to Terre Haute Prison and below is an excerpt from a letter he wrote on December 18th:

“So far we are treated fairly and with respect. There are 16 of us from all over the country (predominantly Muslim/Arabs) and we are told to expect up to 75. It is an experiment ordered by the Attorney General personally. Please let me know if this is mentioned in the news media.” (more…)

Ayman Jarwan was released yesterday and is now being held in a county jail awaiting deportation to Jordan. I’m still working on getting the video interview with his lawyer up on the internet.

Katherine: I have had no news of whether Ayman Jarwan has been released or not, I’ll post any information as soon as I have it.

Below are links to: an article from the year anniversary of the arrests in the “Help the Needy” (HTN) case, a link to a government document listing the HTN defendants as terrorists for sending aid to starving Iraqi civilians, and a video that shows Ayman Jarwan and Dr. Dhafir speaking at a fundraising event for HTN. (more…)

Ayman Jarwan one of the other “Help the Needy” defendants will be released on Friday, December 22, 2006, and most likely deported to Jordan. He took a plea bargain and despite the government telling him he wouldn’t serve time, he was sentenced to 18 months. On December 6th I did a 15-minute interview with Jarwan’s lawyer, Jim McGraw, which I hope to have available online in the next day or two.