Gov't case against Bensouda collapses
By Bill Massey
Chicago
"Who says protest doesn't work?" declared Dick Reilly, a
leader of the Chicago Palestine Solidarity Network, as he
announced that Arab student activist and Palestine supporter
Ahmed Bensouda would be released on bail.
The announcement drew loud applause from over 50 people who
were demonstrating in front of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service building in Chicago's Loop, where
Bensouda's hearing had taken place.
Bensouda had been detained since the FBI arrested him May
30. His June 21 release meant that the University of Illinois
student had stood up to nearly a month of INS and FBI
harassment and intimidation.
Bensouda was arrested on the pretext of a visa violation.
But the authorities quickly turned it into a "national
security" case complete with "secret evidence" that they
claimed would show why he should not be freed on bail.
The student activist had been taken from the
Champaign-Urbana campus to an INS detention center in Dupage
County. His first hearing on June 12 was closed to the public.
It was there that the government raised its claims of "national
security" and "secret evidence."
In contrast, the June 21 hearing before Judge O. John Brahos
was open--and filled with Bensouda's supporters. Federal
prosecutors announced that the case was no longer a "special
inquiry."
The government's case had collapsed, because it had no case
beyond the visa charge. The rest was smoke and mirrors.
Bensouda was released on $10,000 bail. He still faces visa
violation charges.
Defense attorney Jim Fennerty said it was another case of
the government overreaching itself. Fennerty has been at the
forefront of the fight for civil rights and civil liberties in
the Chicago area.
He cautioned that the FBI and INS will continue their
attacks on basic rights as part of the government's policy to
stifle protest against U.S. actions in the Middle East.
In the 24 hours before Bensouda's hearing, several students
in his support network received calls from FBI snoopers.
The victory that ended Bensouda's incarceration owes much to
the two demonstrations that took place on his behalf in the
prior week, the 100 protest letters received from overseas, and
the growing support network that sprang up.
Several speakers at the June 21 protest raised the cases of
Palestinian activists Jaoudat Abouazza of Boston and Faruk
Abdel-Muhte of New York. Rabih Haddad, who has been in prison
for six months without charges, was recently moved from Chicago
back to a prison in Monroe, Mich., while Enaam Arnout of the
Benevolent International Foundation is still jailed at
Chicago's Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Demonstrators said that until the thousands of victims of
the Bush-Ashcroft witch hunt are free, no one is free.
Reprinted from the July 4, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
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