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ACLU
Files Complaint with United Nations in Geneva Seeking Justice for Immigrants
Detained and Deported after 9/11
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January
27, 2004
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New Report on "America's Disappeared"
Details Devastating Effects of Bush Administration's Arbitrary Detention
Policies
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
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Khurram Altaf, a taxpaying U.S. resident for 18 years, was
detained and deported to Pakistan without ever seeing a judge. He was
forced to leave behind his 9-year-old daughter Anza, a U.S. citizen who
needs medical care not available in Pakistan.
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GENEVA/NEW YORK- In
its first-ever official submission to the United Nations Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention, the American Civil Liberties Union today presented
an official complaint to the United Nations on behalf of immigrants
imprisoned and deported from the United States after 9/11.
The Complaint, presented to UNWGAD at a press briefing this morning at
the UN in Geneva, with a follow-up briefing in New York, calls on the
United States government to maintain its high standards of justice for
all despite the threat of terrorism.
"We are filing this complaint before the United Nations to ensure
that U.S. policies and practices reflect not just domestic constitutional
standards, but accepted international human rights principles regarding
liberty and its deprivations," said Anthony Romero, Executive
Director of the ACLU, at the Geneva press briefing.
"With today's action, we are sending a strong message of solidarity
to advocates in other countries who have decried the impact of U.S.
policies on the human rights of their citizens," Romero added.
"The ACLU will go where it must to seek justice for the men who were
unfairly detained and deported by the U.S. government after September
11."
Romero and ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer were joined at the Geneva press
conference by Khurram Altaf, a deportee now in Pakistan after 18 years
residence in the United States.
Altaf, manager of a large truck stop in New Jersey and father of three
American-born children, was deported in 2002 following two months of
detention. After a year's separation, his wife and two children joined
him in Rawalpindi, where he now operates a small grocery store. A third
daughter, Anza, was born deaf and has remained in the United States under
the care of her uncle and extended family. His family misses her
terribly, he said. "Anytime we talk to her - with the implant, she
hears and speaks - they cry. And she does too." Altaf's brother Azim
and his daughter Anza, who are both currently living in New Jersey, spoke
at the UN press briefing today in New York.
In the weeks
following the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, US
government officials have admitted to detaining 765 Arab American and
Muslim immigrants without charges, without access to attorneys and, in
many cases, without access to their own family members. The government
acknowledged deporting a total of 478 of these immigrants. Efforts to
identify detainees or investigate charges against them were rejected by
U.S. government officials.
The ACLU Complaint alleges that the United States government arbitrarily
and indiscriminately arrested immigrants unconnected to terrorism or
crime. Many languished in jail - sometimes in solitary confinement - for
weeks and sometimes months, and the government refused to release them
even when it became clear they were innocent of any charges related to
terrorism.
Through independent research, and with the cooperation of the Pakistani
Embassy, the ACLU was able to identify a number of Pakistani immigrants
then imprisoned and/or deported. In November 2002, representatives of the
ACLU traveled to Pakistan to interview several of the deportees.
A new report released
today, America's Disappeared: Seeking International Justice For
Immigrants Detained After September 11, details the ACLU's
involvement in the issue since September 11, 2001 and tells the story of
many of those imprisoned and deported.
The Complaint was
filed by ACLU attorneys Jaffer, Ann Beeson, Omar Jadwat, Lee Gelernt and
Brigette Pak, with the assistance of Catherine M. Amirfar and Lisa Howley
of the New York law firm Debevoise and Plimpton.
The report is available
online at
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=14800&c=206.
The Complaint is available at
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=14802&c=206.
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List of complainants
(along with country of origin and age) for the United Nations Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention:
Ahmad H. Abualeinen, Jordan, 58
Khaled Raji Said Albitar, Jordan, 34
Zulfigar Ali, Pakistan, 34
Khurram Altaf, Pakistan, 36
Sadek Awaed, Egypt, 32
Benamar Benatta, Algeria, 28
Mohamed M. Elzaher, Egypt, 31
Ansar Mahmood, Pakistan, 26
Anser Mehmood, Pakistan, 44
Noor Hussain Raza, Pakistan, 63
Khaled K. Abu-Shabayek, Jordan, 40
Naeem Sheikh, Pakistan, 32
Sarwar Yamen, Afghanistan, 35
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