www.onepalestine.org/resources/articles/Repression_Of_P -
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Published on: 4/1/2002
Last Visited: 11/28/2007
On Sunday, June 16, Palestinian activist Amer Jubran and another member of the defense committee visited Abouazza in Bristol.His mouth was swollen and bleeding.He told them that earlier on the same day he had been taken from his cell to a medical office inside the prison, strapped into a chair, and four of his teeth had been pulled against his will and without anesthesia.
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Amer Jubran
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Jubran had helped to organize a protest of the Israel Day of Celebration in Brookline in June of 2001.The Brookline police arrested him and broke up the demonstration.They charged him with "assault with a dangerous weapon" (his shod foot) claiming that a local Zionist had accused Jubran of kicking him from behind.
A police video-tape gave clear evidence of the truth: Jubran had not kicked anyone.An independent eye-witness told the police that the accuser had been the aggressor, bumping into Jubran and speaking aggressively.The police at first attempted to suppress this evidence, along with dispatch tapes showing that there had been an advance order to "arrest Jubran" and "clear the demonstration."As it turned out, the Brookline Police were also in the pay of the Israel Day of Celebration organizers, which included the Israeli Consulate; the Brookline Police had communicated information about the protest and protest organizers to the Israeli Consulateâ€"an agent of a foreign government.After a long defense campaign, with 11 court appearances and lasting nearly a year, the Brookline court ultimately granted "pre-trial probation" and dismissed the charges.
Jubran went on to become a leading organizer of the New England Committee to Defend Palestine(NECDP), which helped to organize the June 9, 2002 protest against the Israel Day of Celebration.
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Jubran led the demonstrators in a march through downtown Boston.
Two days later, on the morning of November 4, INS and FBI agents forced their way into Jubran's home in Rhode Island and demanded that he answer some questions.INS agent David Adkins told Jubran that if he would "please the ears" of the FBI, he would be free by that afternoon.If he failed to do so, he "could rot in jail for 50 years."Jubran said that he would only speak to them in the presence of an attorney.When he insisted on this right, the INS proceeded to arrest him.
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Initially the INS insisted that it planned to hold Jubran indefinitely, and refused to cite the statutes under which it claimed authority to do so.INS agent Mike Clifford hung up the phone on Brill when he demanded this information.
On November 21, the INS finally granted a bond hearing and did not contest bond when it was set by the judge.It nevertheless affirmed that it would move forward with deportation against Jubran, now claiming that his Green Cardâ€"granted three years earlier--had been obtained fraudulently, based on an alleged false marriage.
As the case unfolded over the following year, the INSâ€"which became Immigration and Customs Enforcement of the Department of Homeland Security while the case was pendingâ€"systematically abused institutional power, withholding evidence and intimidating witnesses.A little more than a week before the trial scheduled for July 24, federal agents visited members of Jubran's ex-wife's family, interrogating one of them for nine hours and threatening to take her children away if she testified on Jubran's behalf.
The prosecutor consistently failed to turn over documents, submissions of evidence, or witness lists.Jubran complied fully with these requirements.During the July 24 hearing, his ex-wife gave clear testimony that their marriage had been for love.The prosecutor submitted no evidence or witnesses to the contrary; instead, he used the proceedings to inquire about Jubran's political activities and other extraneous matters.The judge over-ruled all objections to this line of inquiry.Although the judge claimed that he was prepared to rule in Jubran's favor, he nevertheless granted the prosecutor time to prolong the case.
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During his final trial on November 6, 2003, Jubran told the judge that he did not have faith in his lawyer and asked that he be granted time to obtain another.The judge told him that if he discharged his lawyer, he would be required to go on with the proceedings with no representation.The judge himself would proceed with direct questioning.Under these circumstances, Jubran requested voluntary departure.He would leave the country in January of 2004.
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In the course of the proceedings against Jubran, the Amer Jubran Defense Committee submitted FOIA petitions to local, state, and federal police agencies.We obtained extensive evidence of police surveillance of activists: twelve video tapes from the Boston police department; evidence of the sharing of photographs between the Brookline and Boston police departmentsâ€"including photographs of Jubran and his supporters inside the Brookline court; and communications between local and federal police agencies.During the July 24 hearing, an agent John Blake of the Department of Homeland Security attempted to attend the proceedings as if he were a "member of the interested public," but was asked to leave after he was forced to reveal his true identity.The AJDC would later photograph him shadowing them at an anti-Ashcroft protest.
Jubran and members of the AJDC presented this information to civil liberties organizations, along with the record of federal abuse of institutional power in using immigration proceedings against Jubran to silence his political speech.In conversation, ACLU representatives affirmed that his case clearly showed a pattern of political harassment; they never followed-up with action on his behalf.
In August of 2003, Jubran wrote a letter to John Reinstein.
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The ACLU replied by inviting Jubran to a meeting.
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Reinstein was present during the final trial; his only intervention was to interrupt the proceedings to recommend that Jubran take the stand and submit to direct questioning by the judge-- without the protection of a lawyer.
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Amer Jubran and Sami al-Arian had shared the stage as Palestinian activists in DC on April 20, 2001.In February of 2003, Al-Arian would be arrested and imprisoned on charges of "supporting terrorism."For the next eight months he was forced to rely on court-appointed attorneys who did little to help him.Much of his time was spent in solitary confinement under 23 hour lockdown.Serious defense did not begin until his defense campaign was able to raise enough money to hire private attorneys in October of 2003.
His trial is finally coming to a conclusion.It has clearly been a case of targeting for political speech and other legal activities in support of Palestinian organizations.
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