Rough justice for detainees held after US attacks

Yazeed Al-Salmi has the misfortune that for six weeks he shared a house with Nawaf Alhazmi.

No-one suggests the 23-year-old did more for the hijacker than buy him a pizza. Indeed, early on in his 17-day detention as a "material witness" in the September 11th investigation, he was told he was not a suspect. But they held him in a dirty, high-security cell and subjected him to what he describes as a frightening and humiliating experience.

"They don't call you by name," he told the Washington Post. "They call you [expletive] terrorist." Al-Salmi, an accountancy student, is out now but homeless. He was evicted by his San Diego landlord while in jail. His lawyer, Mr Randall Hamud, complains that his client, and two others who were also briefly acquainted with Alhazmi in the San Diego Islamic community, were held in solitary confinement, denied the right to communicate with their families, and allowed only limited access to lawyers.

And the unknown number of those like him who are held in the Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Facility in connection with the case are not listed in the jail log. The Justice Department will not even give journalists a list of their a lawyers. The treatment of such prisoners is beginning to cause serious concerns to civil rights activists and lawyers and tends to support the case of those legislators who wanted to slow down the rush to enact further emergency legislation, including an unsuccessful attempt to allow indefinite detention in some cases.

A senior law enforcement official involved in the investigation of September 11th admitted off the record to the Post that they were "pushing the envelope of civil liberties" and that some of those detained for unreasonable lengths of time "have done little more than give someone a ride in their car".

"Judges are denying bail, closing hearings and sealing documents," the Los Angeles Times reports.

"Prosecutors are refusing to divulge what is occurring behind closed doors in jails and courtrooms. Even defence attorneys often do not know what is happening to their clients, or they refuse to discuss them."

The paper cites the following cases: In Mississippi, a 20-year-old student from Pakistan said he was stripped and beaten in his cell by inmates who were angry about the attacks, while jail guards failed to intervene.

In New York, prosecutors are investigating an Egyptian detainee's courtroom allegations of abuse by a guard, and the Israeli consulate is concerned about five Jewish Israelis who say they were blindfolded, handcuffed in their cells and forced to take polygraph tests.

In Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana, immigration officials admit they wrongfully cut off all lawyer visits and phone calls for detainees for a full week after the attacks.

And in Texas, a man from Saudi Arabia initially was denied a lawyer and was deprived of a mattress, a blanket, a drinking cup and the clock he needed for his prayer schedule.

Abdulsalam Achou, a Syrian bread salesman living in Jersey City, New Jersey, has been detained since September 15th for staying in this country 19 days past his visa permit, a minor infraction, said his lawyer, Lamiaa Elfar."His wife is close to nine months pregnant and she has a 1-year-old daughter who was born here," Elfar said.

"She has nobody here except him. She doesn't even know how she's going to get to a hospital. She has no one to take her." None are believed likely to face charges related to the attacks.

The government has largely used two legal tools to enable detentions, arrests of "material witnesses", and breaches of immigration rules. At least 165 of the 698 people who had been held by last weekend were held for the latter reason and many face expulsion once they have convinced the authorities that they are not implicated in September 11th.

Prosecutors wanting to detain material witnesses have to be able to demonstrate to a court that the person is likely to have useful information and may abscond if released. Because of the sensitivity of the case and so many of those held are undocumented aliens or foreigners, that is not difficult.

How long they can be held is a moot legal point.

The Attorney-General, Mr John Ashcroft, however, and the FBI Director, Mr Robert Mueller, insist there has been no disregard for the rights of detainees.

"This Justice Department will never waver in our defence of the Constitution nor relent in our defence of civil rights," Mr Ashcroft told the House Judiciary Committee last month. "The American spirit that rose from the rubble in New York knows no prejudice and defies division by race, ethnicity or religion."

psmyth@irish-times.ie