[Peace] Fwd:[ANSWER]: Jaoudat Abouzza released w/ help of mass campa

[Ricky Baldwin]

This is the first good news in a very scary story.  I'm still concerned 
about the validity of the tooth extraction part, however: does anyone have 
any information about this?  It seems highly unlikely to me, although these 
days it's hard to know.

Ricky


>From: "jencart" <jencart at mycidco.com>
>To: peace at lists.groogroo.com
>Subject: [Peace] Fwd:[ANSWER]: Jaoudat Abouzza released w/ help of mass 
>campa
>Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2002 23:15:22 EDT
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>MASS CAMPAIGN
>HELPED TO WIN RELEASE
>OF PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST
>JAOUDAT ABOUZZA
>FROM INS CUSTODY
>
>After 41 days of illegal detention, Palestinian activist
>Jaoudat Abouazza is now a free man in Canada. Abouazza was  arrested May 30 
>by Cambridge police as part of a national  wave of arrests targeting 
>Palestinian activists, was held  in INS custody, subjected to extreme 
>conditions to the
>point of extracting his teeth by force.  Yet, he stood up
>for his principles and retained his personal integrity in
>the face of enormous pressure.
>
>A strong public defense campaign involving hundreds of
>letters to INS officials, protests and visits and
>investigations has finally led to Jaoudat Abouazza's
>voluntary exit to Canada, where he is a citizen.
>
>BACKGROUND OF THE CASE
>
>On the evening of May 30, Abouazza was stopped by the  Cambridge, 
>Massachusetts police on the pretext of a minor  traffic violation.  Without 
>being charged with a crime or  read his rights by the arresting officers, 
>he was
>handcuffed and brought to the Cambridge police station.  Within hours, 
>Abouazza would find himself in jail being
>interrogated by the FBI for suspicion of "terrorism." Over  that weekend he 
>was held without bail and interrogated 7  times at all hours of day and 
>night without a lawyer
>present.  The reason cited in court was the presence in  his car of 
>leaflets for a June 9 Boston demonstration
>called by A.N.S.W.E.R. protesting an "Israeli Day"
>festival in Boston along with electric wire.  He was then  held for the INS 
>who picked him up and brought him to
>Bristol County Jail on Tuesday, June 3.
>
>While in jail, Jaoudat was subjected to repeated beatings  and arbitrary 
>lockdowns and solitary confinement. On
>Sunday, June 16, guards removed him from his cell and
>forcibly held him down in a chair while several teeth were  extracted from 
>his mouth, and half of a broken tooth was  left in his mouth to continue to 
>bleed. Members of the
>Jaoudat Abouazza Defense Committee who visited that
>evening saw the wounds in Jaoudat's mouth. He was not  provided with 
>antibiotics or pain killers. Two days later
>a delegation including the Executive Director of the Civil  Liberties Union 
>of Massachusetts, the Canadian Consular  Agent, and Jaoudat's state court 
>lawyer visited him, and  demanded medical records about the treatment 
>Jaoudat had  received. Subsequently Jaoudat's primary care physician  Dr. 
>Lana Habash attempted to visit and examine Jaoudat but  was denied access 
>to examine him. Dr. Habash requested all  medical records, but received 
>incomplete records from the  jail which were inconsistent with each other, 
>with what  Jaoudat has told his doctor and Defense Committee members,  and 
>with what Defense Committee members have directly  observed (for example, 
>the records refer to only one
>extraction while Defense Committee members witnessed  multiple wound 
>sites). The supervising doctor refused to  speak with Dr. Habash. Dr. 
>Habash sent a letter of concern  to Amnesty International outlining the 
>conditions, and
>Amnesty International has sent a letter to the INS
>demanding an investigation.
>
>Subsequently, the jail barred the Executive Director of
>the Civil Liberties Union of Mass and Jaoudat's state
>court lawyer from the jail. On subsequent visits they also  barred the two 
>Defense Committee members who had visited  Jaoudat on the day the tooth 
>extraction occurred. They  also demanded he sign forms in English that he 
>didn't
>fully understand, and when he refused, they threw him in  solitary.
>
>Jaoudat had a hearing before an immigration judge on June  27, which he 
>attended by video conferencing. Over 100
>supporters demonstrated outside and then
>
>_______________________________________________
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>Peace at lists.groogroo.com
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"...ironically, perhaps, the best organised dissenters in the world today 
are anarchists, who are busily undermining capitalism while the rest of the 
left is still trying to form committees."
               -- Jeremy Hardy, The Guardian (UK)

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