[Peace] Friends of Ahmed - Media Advisory - 06/10/2002

[Zachary C. Miller]

MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release June 10, 2002


Community Supporters of Detained Man Hopeful for Speedy Hearing


URBANA - On Friday, June 14 at 10 a.m. people in solidarity with an 
imprisoned international student from the University of Illinois will hold 
a press conference featuring a statement from the prisoner, Ahmed 
Bensouda.  Bensouda's supporters are hopeful that he will be granted bond 
on Friday and that his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial will be 
upheld.  However, given that the United States has detained hundreds 
non-residents for many months without a hearing, his supporters are 
prepared to begin a campaign for Bensouda's freedom.

The press conference will take place outside the Champaign County 
Correctional Center, near the corner of Main and Vine streets in Urbana.

To illustrate that Bensouda's fate is shared by hundreds of others, 
supporters will launch a website about Bensouda featuring the generic name 
"Larry".  The site will be launched at 10 a.m. on Friday, and it will be 
called www.friendsoflarry.org.

Ahmed Bensouda has been a politically active international student at the 
University of Illinois, engaged in Palestinian solidarity efforts including 
a boycott campaign against companies that sell military equipment to 
Israel.  The FBI arrested Bensouda on the afternoon of May 30 and later 
turned him over to the INS, which claimed that he was in violation of his 
student visa.  Bensouda remains imprisoned in DuPage County, Illinois where 
he awaits a bond hearing.

For more information, contact:
Raana Ahmed (217) 201-1547 rahmed at uiuc.edu
Jason Schultz (217) 417-0535 jamousa at hotmail.com

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-- 
Zachary C. Miller - @= - http://wolfgang.groogroo.com/
IMSA 1995 - UIUC 2000 - Just Another Leftist Muppet - Ya Basta!
 Social Justice, Community, Nonviolence, Decentralization, Feminism,
 Sustainability, Responsibility, Diversity, Democracy, Ecology