Chilling
United States of America v Rafil A.Dhafir:
Individual Responsibility and Complicity
By Katherine Hughes
11/02/05 “ICH “ – – Are we a society that now calls this justice? Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison on Thursday, October 27th, 2005 for sending humanitarian aid to starving Iraqi civilians through his charity Help the Needy. Dr. Dhafir is an esteemed member of the Muslim community here in Syracuse, New York, and he is respected nationally and internationally. His sentencing follows 31 months of detention without bail and a 17-week trial. The government presented its case in minutia – 7 government agencies investigated Rafil Dhafir for 5 years. The defense called one witness for 15 minutes. One of Dr. Dhafir’s lawyers commented in summation that the only government agency not represented was the Fish and Wildlife Service. The 60-count indictment included International Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEEPA, violation, money laundering, wire fraud and Medicare fraud, and the government won conviction on every count except one where they had mistakenly listed the wrong bank.
I believe it is impossible to overstate the message that has been sent to the Muslim community via this detention, prosecution and sentencing. It says, in no uncertain terms: “If we can get Rafil Dhafir, we can get anyone”. It also lets them know that a pillar of their society can be felled without so much as a call for equal justice from the non-Muslim community. Even as a person who is not Arab or Muslim, these messages frighten me. I have spent my entire life secure in the knowledge that my civil rights would be respected, as a consequence of attending this trial I no longer believe that to be true. </i>
