Dr. Dhafir’s attorney, Peter Goldberger, has given us very clear instructions how to write the most effective letter to Judge Mordue, please read them carefully before writing this very important letter.  Below are some examples that hopefully will help people write their own letter by giving them some idea of what others have written. Signed hard copy letters should be mailed to Peter Goldberger’s office. Before mailing it to him – to ensure it is a letter that will be supportive of Rafil’s cause – I encourage you to submit your letter first to Peter Golberger’s office by email for approval: paralegal.goldberger@verizon.net

Re: Rafil Dhafir

August 9, 2010

Dear Judge Mordue:

I saw Rafil Dhafir in court only on the day when the verdict was returned by the jury, but I have been corresponding with him first by letter and then by email on a monthly basis since January of 2006.

As you are aware, he is currently incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution’s  Communications Management Unit at Terre Haute IN.  Here his visits are restricted, and he is not allowed contact visits, and his phone calls are also restricted. In addition he is far from his wife in New York State.  Furthermore the medical care within the unit is somewhat restricted due to budgetary considerations, and the unit itself in the summer is subject to high temperatures.

In  the letters I have received from Rafil over the years I have been impressed by the help and understanding he has given his fellow inmates, his solicitude concerning my health, and his concern for my general welfare.  He has emerged in our  correspondence as a peaceful and loving humanitarian and I feel honored to know him if only in an epistolary way.  One year I had children from my Quaker Sunday School Class write Rafil, and he was very touched by their letters.

In Vergil’s Aeneid there is the hexameter: parcere subjectis et debellare superbos- to spare the conquered and subdue the proud.  I hope you can find it in your heart to use all due discretion to reconsider the sentence of a man going into the last chapter of his life.

Bob Elmendorf

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Dear Judge Mordue,

Re.:  Rafil Dhafir

The first time I came across Dr. Rafil Dhafir’s case was in December 2009. I found his name on a list of people in prison and the length of his sentence drew my attention.  I therefore decided to send him a message of support.  His reply arrived a couple of months later and its gentle tone made me curious.  That’s when I started to look into the case and decided to remain in contact with Rafil Dhafir, in order to help him through his detention time in Terre Haute, Indiana.

I am a 63 year old French woman, but my husband is German and I have lived in Germany for many years now. From the very beginning of the embargo back in 1990, the German and the French media were showing how hard the consequences were on the population, especially on the children. In this context, Dr. Dhafir could but feel compassion for people he probably knew there and all the others and this led to the founding of a humanitarian organisation “Help the Needy”.

Nowadays, Dr. Rafil Dhafir is getting older and the conditions of his detention in Indiana are not easy, considering the climate, the permanent monitoring and the lack of contact with his wife and friends.  Those are reasons why I am appealing to your leniency, hoping that you might find some valuable reasons for a shortening of the sentence.

Yours sincerely,

B.R.

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Dear Judge Mordue:

I am writing on behalf of Dr. Rafil Dhafir, who is scheduled for re-sentencing before you – I respectfully request leniency for Dr. Dhafir, whether that be through a downward departure or a variance. I have never met Dr. Dhafir personally, but have long followed the case, and I have a great deal of regard for him. Perhaps one reason for this is that while his case was proceeding, my mother (a life-long non-smoker) was diagnosed and treated for lung cancer — she passed away five years ago in September, 2005.

I was struck by the fact that, for whatever reason, an oncologist — a cancer doctor — was being prosecuted a couple of hours drive from me while at the same time I was looking for such a doctor for my mother, and learning that some are excellent, and some not. My mother was diagnosed in June, 2004, a few months before Dr. Dhafir’s trial. While his trial was proceeding that fall, my mother was undergoing radiation and chemotherapy, and was hospitalized with complications from the treatment. In January, 2005, while Dr. Dhafir’s trial was still in progress, my father, who had long suffered from something akin to Alzheimer’s Disease, passed away. Then my mother’s cancer spread to her brain. From August-September, 2005, I left work and stayed at my mother’s house, caring for her at home, eventually under the guidance of Community Hospice. My mother passed away peacefully at home on September 22, one month before Dr. Dhafir was sentenced to approximately 23 years in prison, mainly for how he ran his charity, Help the Needy.

My point, I guess, is to explain why I followed this case so closely, and had such strong feelings about it. I learned from people close to Dr. Dhafir in Syracuse that he was considered one of the very best oncologists, and that other doctors would sometimes refer their hardest cases to him for another look. He was also known for the trust he inspired in patients, even those who generally didn’t listen to doctors — he convinced many to have treatment they otherwise would have declined, and prolonged or even saved lives as a result. Dr. Dhafir’s background as an exemplary oncologist, coupled with his history of giving to the community in other ways, provides strong support for a lower sentence.

Another reason for a lower sentence is the conditions of incarceration Dr. Dhafir has been under, at least since he was suddenly taken, in December, 2006, to the new (and likely illegally set up and operated) Communications  Management Unit in Terre Haute, Indiana, far from his family and friends. No contact visits with family members are allowed. Only one 15 minute phone call per week is permitted, and the new proposed guidelines allow for further reducing that to one 15 minute phone call a month. Medical treatment in the CMU is abysmal, with inmates in great pain at times waiting months to see a doctor or dentist. Even though there were no allegations of terrorism in Dr. Dhafir’s trial, the BOP saw fit to designate him to this unit based on some sort of suspicion of his beliefs. It is clear that severe conditions of incarceration may be considered in support for a downward departure, and this Court should provide such a departure in this case.

Respectfully,

Kathy Manley

Attorney

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Dear Judge Mordue,

My attention has been drawn by a friend to the case of the oncologist Dr Rafil Dhafir, sentenced in 2005 to 22 years imprisonment on charges arising chiefly out of his involvement for 13 years from the early 1990s in sending humanitarian aid to Iraq in breach of official US and UN sanctions policy then in force.  I understand that you will preside in the near future at a review of his sentence.

I do not intend to raise here any legal issues relating to the case — it is for his attorney to   put these to you.  But I am concerned that a man who clearly acted from considerations of conscience and a desire to alleviate the sufferings of Iraqi civilians and who set up a charity, Help the Needy, to do so, has been sentenced to such a long prison term.

I have a particular interest in the history and current relevance of nonviolent action. In 1951, at the age of 18, I registered as a conscientious objector to military conscription here in the UK. Since then, I have been involved in various peace organisations and nonviolent action campaigns., In 1959-60 I participated in the Sahara Protest Expedition, an attempt by an international team from Britain, the US, France, Ghana, and other African countries to cross the Sahara from Ghana and drive to the French atomic testing site in the Sahara and prevent the French government testing its atomic weapons.  One of the participants in that project, who became a life-long friend and colleague, was the American black activist, Bayard Rustin who went on in 1963 to co-ordinate the historic March on Washington at which Martin Luther King made his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech.

From 1960 until 1987 I was a Council and Executive member of the pacifist organisation, War Resisters International.  Founded in Holland in 1921 in the aftermath of World War I, WRI, which has sections and affiliates in many countries, opposes war and promotes nonviolent action for peace and justice.  From 1966 until 1973 I was also its Chair.  In 1960, I became Chair of the Committee of 100, a campaign launched by the eminent philosopher Bertrand Russell, and the anti-apartheid campaigner, Rev. Michael Scott, to organise nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience again Britain’s nuclear weapons. As a result of the actions in which I participated, and help organise, I spent several periods in prison, including a twelve-month period in 1962-63.

Later I became involved at an academic level, researching peace and nonviolent action at the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the UK where I was a lecturer and research fellow from 1973 to 2006. From 1980 to 1988, I co-ordinated the Bradford University based Alternative Defence Commission, which investigated a non-nuclear defence policy for Britain and Western Europe, publishing two major reports, in 1983 and 1987.  I have also written several books related to nonviolence, including one entitled Civil Resistance, which was published by Fontana, London, in 1994 and formed the basis of my subsequent PhD thesis.

Nonviolent direct action, including civil disobedience, is now widely accepted as having a legitimate role in democratic politics. The outstanding example of its use in the US was of course during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.  Normally, however, in advanced democratic countries the motivation of an act of civil disobedience, and its nonviolent character, are taken into account when sentence is passed on someone convicted of conscientious breaches of the law.

Given that, the sentence of 22 years on Dr Dhafir is surely disproportionate.  I hope, therefore, that you will give due weight to these considerations, and see your way to substantially reducing it.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Randle

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Dear Judge Mordue,

I am writing to you about Dr. Rafil Dhafir whose case will soon come before you for resentencing.  I am a 51 year-old woman, originally from Scotland, and the U.S. has been my home for the last 22 years.  I responded to a call from the ACLU to attend Dr. Dhafir’s trial because, since seeing a documentary of the Allies going into Bergen Belsen as a teenager, I have a passion for the preservation of civil liberties.

I did not know Dr. Dhafir before attending almost all of his trial.  The proceedings showed him to be a devout man of compassion who not only provided cancer patients with outstanding care, but also helped the needy people in Iraq.  I began corresponding with him after he was sentenced and correspond regularly with him to this day.

His time in prison has not been easy, particularly because he is held in a special communication management unit that restricts contact with his family.  This is partly due to the distance they have to travel, but also because of restrictive regulations on visiting, phone calls, and letters.  He is held in the old death row building in Terre Haute, Indiana, which had been vacant for a number of years before Muslim prisoners from all over the country were moved there in December 2006.  Because the building is old and dilapidated, prisoners are subject to extreme heat in the summer and cold in the winter, including snow in some of the cells.

Dr. Dhafir has a number of health issues that certainly affect his ability to endure the circumstances in which he is serving his sentence.  He developed a heart condition after his arrest and has not always had the heart medication his condition requires.  He’s also had two extremely painful episodes of gout that could easily have been prevented if he had been given medication.

During Walid Smari’s testimony, you instructed the jury, “[M]embers of the jury, we’re not here to judge whether it’s a noble thing in the world and the right thing, that’s fine.  But the thing we’re here for is whether or not there’s been a violation of the law done according to what the allegations are by the government.”  Three months later the jury decided that Dr. Dhafir had indeed committed a violation of the law according to the government allegations and he is paying dearly for this crime. As his case comes before you for resentencing I hope you will find it in your heart to reduce his sentence so that he may spend some of his remaining years with his family.

Yours Sincerely,

Katherine Hughes

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Re Rafil Dhafir

Dear Judge Mordue:

I write in the matter of the resentencing of Rafil Dhafir.  While I have corresponded with Dr. Dhafir, I met him only once — when I visited him at Jamesville Penitentiary during his trial. On that occasion I was immediately struck by his gracious presence.

I felt that any patient would be fortunate to have this man be his or her physician. Indeed, I feel that Central New York is the less because this humane man is no longer practicing medicine here.

My purpose in visiting Dr. Dhafir had been to suggest that my own experience might be of some relevance to his defense. Like scores — or perhaps hundreds — of other U.S. citizens, I had taken part in illegal Voices in the Wilderness delegations to Iraq during the U.S./UN sanctions.

I visited Iraq twice in 2003 with Voices, spending a total of five months there — including during the several weeks of “Shock and Awe.”  With each trip we brought medical and other humanitarian aid to the desperate people of Iraq.

I fully understood our action was a form of protracted civil disobedience. And for this “criminality,” I was prepared to suffer legal consequences when I returned to the U.S.  Such was — and is — my conviction that the sanctions and subsequent occupation was/is an injustice and humanitarian disaster of staggering scale.

Inspired by Gandhi, and by my Christian conscience, for much of my adult life I have been an activist working against violence, both physical and systemic. I have worked in areas of strife like Guatemala, El Salvador,  Haiti, and Sri Lanka with Peace Brigades International providing unarmed protective accompaniment to local human rights activists threatened with abduction and assassination. Locally I am active with Mothers Against Gun Violence, Peace Action of CNY, and with the Syracuse Peace Council.

Your Honor, in your resentencing of Dr. Dhafir, I respectfully request that you lean toward leniency.

Sincerely,

Ed Kinane

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Dear Judge Mordue,

We write to ask that as you follow the requirements of the law when Rafil Dhafir appears before you soon for resentencing, that you also open your heart to justice and compassion.

We are a married couple, 51 and 54 years old, and parents of a son and daughter in their 20s.  For all of our adult lives we have been involved in peace, justice and human rights work. We came to know Dr. Dhafir following his arrest, when we learned that his prosecution began as a result of his efforts to direct charitable contributions to victims of the economic sanctions against his native Iraq in the years following the 1991 war against that nation. We have several personal friends who traveled to Iraq during that time, and who we supported as they openly and personally delivered contraband humanitarian aid to the victims of the war and the sanctions, but who themselves were not criminally prosecuted.

We first wrote to Dr. Dhafir several years ago, as he awaited trial, and have communicated by letter and via email since that option has been available. For thirty years, our professional work has been editing and publishing a newsletter encouraging support for people in jail or prison due to nonviolent acts of conscience in opposition to nuclear weapons, nuclear power, torture and war. We have included updates about Dr. Dhafir’s case in the newsletter.

Through our correspondence, we have come to know an intelligent, thoughtful, and religiously devout man well suited to the medical profession. Among other topics, such as gardening and cooking, we’ve corresponded about the journey of a young woman and close friend of ours in Tucson who passed away within the last year after bouts with brain and stomach cancers. Through this correspondence we have gotten a clear sense of a caring and devoted doctor. We have also been impressed with Dr. Dhafir’s accounts of his efforts to help the younger men in his unit cope constructively with the frustrations and deprivations of imprisonment, and not direct their anger inappropriately at each other nor prison staff who are only doing their job at the direction of supervisors.

Our impression of his calm and stable humanity is confirmed when we read of his professional skill and personal compassion in the supportive letters from his patients and colleagues. Dr. Dhafir’s stated intent in founding Help the Needy was to provide charity to the suffering people of his homeland, and demonstrates the same compassion we have observed, and that his patients and their families have reported.

In the case of Dr. Dhafir, we believe that justice would best be served by a reduction of his sentence to the minimum possible under the law.

We also ask that whatever sentence you impose, that you act to mitigate the added punishment of Dr. Dhafir and his wife resulting from his present confinement in the CMU at Terre Haute. The distance of this prison from his home, the absence of any contact visits for men on this unit, and the restrictions on telephone calls and correspondence together are a gross hardship on the maintenance of the marriage relationship, and unwarranted by the nonviolent nature of his convictions. It is our understanding that prisoners including Dr. Dhafir are placed in this unit without any opportunity to appeal the administrative decision, and they are given no defined path to less restrictive confinement based upon good behavior.

We are aware that the Bureau of Prisons has final determination, but also know that the recommendation of the sentencing judge is considered. In your resentencing order, please show compassion, and request of the BoP that Dr. Dhafir serve a remaining sentence, if any, in a less restrictive environment closer to home.

Thank you for your consideration of the opportunity you have at resentencing Dr. Rafil Dhafir to make justice and compassion shine forth in the application of law.

Sincerely,

Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa

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Your Honor,

I am writing on behalf of Dr. Rafil Dhafir who is scheduled for re-sentencing by you. I have never met Dr. Dhafir in person, but I have corresponded with him since his imprisonment and have met some of his friends and colleagues involved with his charitable work. I respectfully request leniency for Dr. Dhafir.

I learned of Dr. Dhafir’s case one year after starting my Ph.D. in social science at Syracuse University in 2007. One of my course requirements included a qualitative research class where each student was expected to conduct his or her research project over the course of one semester. However since my dissertation is on the charitable practices of Muslims living in the Middle East, I was not able to do any interviews and participant observations while residing in Syracuse. So I had to find a local project to pursue for this class that was still relevant to my research interests. When I learned about the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Dr. Dhafir and the subsequent questioning of the local Muslim community, I decided to research the impact this had on the charitable practices of Muslims living in Syracuse.

Unfortunately it was difficult to find people willing to speak with me. They were still frightened after all of these years. Nevertheless a few brave souls stepped forward and my research ultimately focused on the work of interfaith organizations in Central New York. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian charitable activists kindly welcomed me into their homes to speak with me about their faith and personal experiences with interfaith organizations. I started volunteering with some of these interfaith organizations myself. During this project I met some of the most inspirational people I have ever encountered in my life, many of whom previously supported or worked with Dr. Dhafir’s charity. I was not only moved by their own personal stories of overcoming social injustice, but also inspired by their continued work in promoting peace and understanding in the local community, and especially how they continued to reach out to others who suffered economic and social injustices despite what they have been through themselves. Or perhaps they continued to live charitable lives because of what they have been through themselves. These are the very people responsible for the Acts of Kindness Weekend in Syracuse, a weekend of volunteerism and good deeds that corresponded with this year’s commemorations of 9/11. My little research project that was initially only meant to fulfill a course requirement turned into an illuminating set of experiences and relationships that suddenly made Syracuse a wonderful place to live.

In my written correspondence with Dr. Dhafir, his person reflected the same values and generosity that I experienced with his supporters and colleagues. He even included a joke in his letter and thanked his parents for his own upbringing, illustrating that his humanity is stronger than his fate.

I please urge you to reconsider the 22-year sentence that Dr. Dhafir is currently serving. As you are aware, he is incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution’s Communications Management Unit (CMU) at Terre Haute, Indiana. The CMU was established in 2006 as a medium security prison to better monitor prison communications. The majority of CMU inmates are Arab Muslims, leading the American Civil Liberties Union to raise questions of racial profiling. The CMU forbids any conversations that are not in English, restricts inmates’ ability to practice their religion, and monitors all telephone calls and mail. Dr. Dhafir is only allowed 15 minutes on the phone once a week. Furthermore he is not allowed any contact visits.

If I learned anything from my little research project here in Syracuse, it is that our society only gets stronger when we reach out to others. Please consider reducing Dr. Dhafir’s sentence so that he can rejoin his community sooner. Please grant him the ability to be with his wife, pray with his community, practice his medicine, and live a charitable life.

Yours sincerely,

Sarah Marusek

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Re:  Rafil Dhafir

Dear Judge Mordue:

I do not know Rafil Dhafir, but I have been following his case since his arrest, and probably know more about the case than 98% of the residents of Onondaga County.

I understand that you will be re-sentencing Dr. Dhafir.  In your thinking, I hope that you will note that this is a man, who is not only very religious, but that he is also spiritual.  He has a good reputation as a physician, and it appears to me that the intention of his charitable activities was to reduce human suffering.

Also, I have followed many of the details of his incarceration in the Communications Management Unit.  The rules and regulations of the CMU put severe limitations on liberties which inmates in other units and other prisons are allowed.  These privations include, but are not limited to harsh restrictions on telephone calls, personal visitation, and religious ritual.  The restrictions on religious activity cause extra suffering for a very religious man like Dr. Dhafir–suffering which would not be experienced by an inmate for whom religion and spirituality were not an important part of life.

As a member of a church in the Christian faith and as a spiritual being, I have a special compassion for Dr. Dhafir’s inability to follow the religion he has chosen and to use it to maintain and build his spirituality.

What I am saying is that, I hope that you will view the suffering of Dr. Dhafir as a result of his placement in the CMU as extra punishment which would warrant a reduction in his sentence.

I would also hope that you would consider leniency in sentencing him because of the general nature of the situation which led him to be arrested, including his apparent sincerity and absence of malice.

Sincerely,

Mark Briggs

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Dear Judge Mordue,

I am writing on behalf of Dr Rafil Dhafir, who is scheduled for resentencing before you soon. I respectfully request leniency for Dr Dhafir, whether through a variance or a downward departure. This case has interested me since I attended a session of his trial and I  have followed his case ever since.

Although I have never met Dr Dhafir I know of his excellent reputation  as a wise and compassionate doctor through my work as a Hospice nurse. I feel this man acted with clear conscience in his desire to help suffering people in Iraq through the charity, Help the Needy.

The time he has spent in prison has been difficult because he has been held in a special unit that is distant from his family and restricts his communication with them. He also has health concerns which have not been adequately addressed in a timely manner.

When his case comes before you I would ask that you truly view his whole situation and reduce his sentence through a variance or downward departure so he could be with his family in his aging years.

Yours sincerely, Patricia Carey Schwarzlander RN

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Re: Rafil Dhafir

Dear Judge Mordue:

As a longtime resident of Syracuse I became aware of Rafil Dhafir’s case through coverage of the trial in the Post-Standard and through my friend Katherine Hughes. I have known Katherine since shortly after I moved to Syracuse in 1989. We met at the Syracuse Friends (Quaker) Meeting. Katherine attended the trial conscientiously and took copious notes. She has shared with me much of what she saw and heard during that time. I know many people in Syracuse through my work with Light Work (president of the board of directors), the Everson Museum (Acquisitions Committee), and my own business, Lisa Goodlin Design, and through LeMoyne College where my husband, Mario Saenz, is chair of the philosophy department. I have no doubt that Katherine Hughes and her husband, Bob Newman, are unique in their absolute dedication to living lives of honesty and integrity. When Katherine tells me about Mr. Dhafir’s current situation, I have no doubt that she speaks the truth.

In the Communications Management Unit in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Mr. Dhafir is serving out his term, visits are restricted as are phone calls. He is also far from his wife who still lives in the Syracuse area. Mr. Dhafir was convicted of white-collar crimes, many of them associated with breaking the sanctions against Iraq. He was not charged with terrorism, and terrorism was not even mentioned during his trial (due to a motion that the prosecutors made). Yet he is being kept in a prison that is intended to limit inmates’ communications and which, I understand, subjects inmates to extremes in temperature and lacks adequate medical facilities. Please consider exercising leniency in the re-sentencing of Mr. Rafil Dhafir.

Sincerely yours,

Lisa Goodlin

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Dear Judge Mordue,

A friend of mine brought Dr. Rafil Dhafir´s case to my attention and I immediately felt very touched and concerned. I don´t have a background in legal work myself, but I experienced the embargo in a very personal way which I would like to explain here.

My first husband was an Iraqi living in exile. We met just shortly after the invasion of Saddam Hussein into Kuwait and were married in 1992. At that time the international sanctions against Iraq had been in effect for almost two years.

We had many years of worries about our Iraqi family though we supported the sanctions wholeheartedly. But the price was very high. There is a political and a personal level, which we both experienced during that time. We knew about the effects of the sanctions not through news and speeches, but from conversations on the phone. We heard about the everyday struggle for food, medical care and all the basics for a normal life. In fact my father-in-law died in 1994 because of lack of medication in a hospital, in Baghdad — although life there seemed to be slightly better than in rural areas of Iraq.

We heard many heartbreaking stories from and about the family, friends, neighbours….. My husband’s family was a normal middle class family, religious and open to the West. Most of them had been college educated, partly in England and partly in France. They were the ones who were suffering the most, being reduced to live on nothing — and today it is still a miracle to me how they could survive.

When I heard about the case of Dr. Dhafir, all those memories came back. I imagine him, a well educated man who had the opportunity to lead a good life in the US. I can well understand the urge to help his fellow people, with whom he naturally had kept ties of friendship — who wouldn´t? To me, it honors him and the country which gave him the opportunity to be this kind of caring and compassionate person. When life, fate or the grace of God has blessed you to lead a sheltered and comfortable life, who would not feel the urge to share and help those in need? All religions demand to be your brother´s keeper.

I am not naive. I understand that he has broken US laws — but the sentence seems to me unusually high. Therefore, when reviewing Rafil Dhafir’s sentence, I hope you will balance Dr. Dhafir’s errors with the emotional and psychological situation he must have been in at the time, and with the compassion that largely motivated him.

Yours sincerely,

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Re: Rafil Dhafir

Dear Judge Mordue:

I am currently a Syracuse City School District teacher.  I coordinates a program at Syracuse University for students with developmental and disabilities.  I am also the volunteer Director of the North Side Learning Center where we teach literacy to refugee families. I am also the Education Secretary at the Islamic Society of Central New York.

I moved to Syracuse to finish my PhD in education around the time when Rafil Dhafir was being tried.  I had the opportunity to attend the trial for a few days because I had time off from work because I was taking bereavement days as my father had just passed away.

I had never seen Rafil before this time.  I had only heard about him.  I was new to the community and wanted to find out what was happening.  Based on my inquiries and conversations with community members, I came to know of Rafil as a kind, generous and pious man who did an incredible amount of good deeds for people.  Since that time I have come to know his wife, who is a teacher, and many people who knew him for a very long time.  His reputation is unsurpassed.  He assisted people in need all the time, both spiritually and financially.

Currently, Rafil is at the stage of his life where he is “gathering his things,” approaching the final stage of his life.  I understand he is in a Communications Management Unit in prison in Indiana, isolated, and far from his family.  I believe he has suffered enough.  His health is deteriorating.  I heard that he was having surgery just the other day.

I know that Rafil was found guilty of certain crimes by a jury of his peers.  However, I would like to request that you show leniency in his upcoming re-sentencing.  Rafil has been away from his family and community for a long time.  I would like to see him come home as soon as possible.  Please consider my plea.  Thank you in advance for your consideration.

Respectfully,

Joseph Bailey Soule, PhD

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