Hammoudeh's Attorneys Call Jailing Illegal

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

Published: Mar 9, 2006

TAMPA - Attorneys for Sameeh Hammoudeh filed a petition in federal court Wednesday alleging his continued jailing is illegal.

Hammoudeh was acquitted Dec. 7 as one of the co-defendants in the trial of Sami Al-Arian on terrorism-related charges. Jurors in the case did not convict any defendant of any charges but deadlocked on some counts against Al-Arian and another defendant, Hatim Fariz.

Until the verdict, Hammoudeh had been held without bail since February 2003 pending the trial. After the jury acquitted him, he was transferred to an immigration holding facility in Bradenton pending deportation.

Hammoudeh agreed to be deported as part of a plea deal in an unrelated fraud case in which his wife, Nadia, also was prosecuted and received a similar sentence of probation conditioned on deportation.

Nadia Hammoudeh remained free on bail until she was deported last month. Sameeh Hammoudeh's attorneys have gone to court repeatedly only to be turned away by an immigration judge and a U.S. District Court judge, who both said they lacked jurisdiction.

The law allows immigration officials to detain someone for up to 90 days pending deportation. After that, they can get a 90-day extension if they file paperwork explaining the need for detention, said Stephen Crawford, one of Hammoudeh's attorneys.

Crawford said he hasn't been served with such paperwork. "We haven't seen anything yet, and it's not like they don't know who we are."

Officials are working to deport Hammoudeh, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said in a written statement Wednesday.

She said officials did not have to deport Hammoudeh within three months, but merely had to hold a custody review within 90 days. They are waiting for the results of that review, Gonzalez said.

Crawford said he talked to Hammoudeh's family, who are in the West Bank of Israel. "They are frustrated, anxious and all those other adjectives that would go with a family waiting for a man to come home," he said.

In a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed Wednesday, Crawford and attorney Stephen Bernstein argued that Hammoudeh's detention is arbitrary and not justified under the law. They also accuse the Department of Homeland Security of misleading them into canceling court hearings by telling them Hammoudeh's deportation was imminent.