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Farouk Abdel-Muhti: Palestinian Freedom Fighter Called For Unity Moments Before He Died
Palestinian freedom fighter Farouk Abdel-Muhti, died Wednesday, apparently of a heart attack, after giving a speech in Philadelphia. He was 57 years old. His death comes just three months after he was released from jail where he was detained for two years without charge. We hear a recording of his last words as well as an address he gave on the night he was released from prison and we speak with his son Tariq and his fiancee and longtime friend Sharin Chiorazzo who was with him when he died.
The struggle for Palestinians' human rights has lost one of its leading fighters in the US. Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a member of the Pacifica radio station WBAI family, died yesterday, apparently of a heart attack, while he was giving a speech last night in Philadelphia. In his speech, he called for unity among groups fighting for social justice. His death comes just three months after he was released from jail where he was detained for two years without charge. He was 57 years old.
Farouk Adbel-Muhti was born in 1947 in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank of Jordan. Like many Palestinians, Farouk lived the uprooted life of a stateless refugee, traveling from country to country until finally settling in New York in the 1970s. He made it his home and has lived there ever since.
He came to the attention of immigration officials in the mid-1970s after overstaying his visa. An immigration judge ordered him deported, however, there was no way to carry out the deportation, since the West Bank was now controlled by Israel, which did not allow the return of people who left the Palestinian territories before the Israeli occupation of 1967.
Farouk continued to live openly in the New York area, engaging in a number of public political activities, with a focus on Palestinian rights and issues relating to immigration and Latin America.
In March 2002, Farouk began working regularly at Pacifica Radio station WBAI. He used his contacts to arrange interviews with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories on the morning radio program "Wake-Up Call."
One month later, three New York police officers and an INS agent, all in civilian dress, came to his Queens apartment without a warrant. They claimed they wanted to ask Farouk some questions about September 11th. They said they believed there were weapons and explosives in the apartment. When Farouk's roommate, Bernard McFall refused to open the door, they threatened to break it down, entering without a warrant.
But Farouk wasn't at home because he was at an early morning interview at WBAI. He learned of the raid from his roommate and his son, Tariq.
Farouk was detained on April 26, 2002 and jailed in various facilities around the country for two years. He was never charged with a crime. He was often held in solitary confinement, subjected to extensive interrogation, and often denied food. His health was failing but he remained handcuffed and shackled whenever he went to the health clinic. Two years after his detention, a federal judge ordered Farouk to be deported, charged or released. He walked out of prison on April 12, 2004.
Last night, after giving a speech at the Ethical Society in Philadelphia, Farouk's head fell to the table. He collapsed and died shortly afterwards.
LISTEN TO AUDIO
(and links to previous interviews with Farouk)
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/22/1349215
Farouk Adbel-Muhti was born in 1947 in Ramallah, a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank of Jordan. Like many Palestinians, Farouk lived the uprooted life of a stateless refugee, traveling from country to country until finally settling in New York in the 1970s. He made it his home and has lived there ever since.
He came to the attention of immigration officials in the mid-1970s after overstaying his visa. An immigration judge ordered him deported, however, there was no way to carry out the deportation, since the West Bank was now controlled by Israel, which did not allow the return of people who left the Palestinian territories before the Israeli occupation of 1967.
Farouk continued to live openly in the New York area, engaging in a number of public political activities, with a focus on Palestinian rights and issues relating to immigration and Latin America.
In March 2002, Farouk began working regularly at Pacifica Radio station WBAI. He used his contacts to arrange interviews with Palestinians in the Occupied Territories on the morning radio program "Wake-Up Call."
One month later, three New York police officers and an INS agent, all in civilian dress, came to his Queens apartment without a warrant. They claimed they wanted to ask Farouk some questions about September 11th. They said they believed there were weapons and explosives in the apartment. When Farouk's roommate, Bernard McFall refused to open the door, they threatened to break it down, entering without a warrant.
But Farouk wasn't at home because he was at an early morning interview at WBAI. He learned of the raid from his roommate and his son, Tariq.
Farouk was detained on April 26, 2002 and jailed in various facilities around the country for two years. He was never charged with a crime. He was often held in solitary confinement, subjected to extensive interrogation, and often denied food. His health was failing but he remained handcuffed and shackled whenever he went to the health clinic. Two years after his detention, a federal judge ordered Farouk to be deported, charged or released. He walked out of prison on April 12, 2004.
Last night, after giving a speech at the Ethical Society in Philadelphia, Farouk's head fell to the table. He collapsed and died shortly afterwards.
LISTEN TO AUDIO
(and links to previous interviews with Farouk)
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/07/22/1349215
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By April 12, 2004, Farouk's release date:
Farouk had been illegally jailed 718 days
http://www.freefarouk.org/
Farouk had been illegally jailed 718 days
http://www.freefarouk.org/
Lawyers: Jail may have hastened activist's death
Farouk Abdel-Muhti was detained 23 months awaiting deportation. He died Wednesday in Phila.
By Gaiutra Bahadur
Inquirer Staff Writer
Farouk Abdel-Muhti, the Palestinian who died Wednesday night after speaking in Philadelphia at the Ethical Society, spent 23 months in jail waiting to be deported and without a country to accept him.
That lengthy detention violated a U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting how long certain immigrants may be held, a federal judge ruled in April.
His attorneys now say his long stay in county jails in New Jersey and Pennsylvania might also have led to his death.
Abdel-Muhti, 57, collapsed from an apparent heart attack after speaking to about 180 antiwar activists.
He had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and thyroid disease. The day after his release in April, he said that prison guards did not always give him his medication for those conditions.
"They were erratic about it," said David Wilson, a member of the Free Farouk Committee in New York, which held frequent protests against his detention. "They would withhold it as punishment."
The Department of Homeland Security expressed disbelief that guards would do that.
"That would never happen," spokesman Bill Strassberger said. "Medication is not withheld. That would cause serious disciplinary action. We have standards that we expect contract facilities to maintain."
The federal government pays county jails about $70 a day to house immigrant detainees.
Abdel-Muhti, who was picked up in New York City as part of a massive post-Sept. 11 sweep of illegal immigrants, was caught in the limbo of being "a man without a country," as the federal judge in Harrisburg who ordered his release described it.
He was moved nine times during his two years in detention and, with each move, there were disruptions in his medication, said one of his attorneys, Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.
According to internist Kumar Sharma at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, missing medications for high blood pressure on a regular basis can cause heart damage, and missing medications for hypothyroidism can lead to problems with a slow heart rate.
Kadidal said the eight consecutive months that Abdel-Muhti spent in solitary confinement at the York County Prison also took a toll on his health. Homeland Security did not immediately return a call to explain the reason for that punishment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional to hold detainees who have been ordered deported for more than six months, unless there is "a significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future."
Abdel-Muhti was born in the occupied West Bank two decades before Israel assumed control of the territory. The Israeli government has refused him a visa because officials said they could not find his name on a population registry.
A street vendor who helped the alternative radio station WBAI-FM (99.5) in New York arrange interviews with Palestinians, Abdel-Muhti became a cause celebre in jail. He led an eight-day hunger strike to protest conditions at the Passaic County Jail in New Jersey in 2003.
Abdel-Muhti entered the United States illegally in the 1970s and was ordered deported in 1995, but stayed on. He did not come to the attention of authorities again until after Sept. 11.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/cities_neighborhoods/philadelphia/9235145.htm?1c
Farouk Abdel-Muhti was detained 23 months awaiting deportation. He died Wednesday in Phila.
By Gaiutra Bahadur
Inquirer Staff Writer
Farouk Abdel-Muhti, the Palestinian who died Wednesday night after speaking in Philadelphia at the Ethical Society, spent 23 months in jail waiting to be deported and without a country to accept him.
That lengthy detention violated a U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting how long certain immigrants may be held, a federal judge ruled in April.
His attorneys now say his long stay in county jails in New Jersey and Pennsylvania might also have led to his death.
Abdel-Muhti, 57, collapsed from an apparent heart attack after speaking to about 180 antiwar activists.
He had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and thyroid disease. The day after his release in April, he said that prison guards did not always give him his medication for those conditions.
"They were erratic about it," said David Wilson, a member of the Free Farouk Committee in New York, which held frequent protests against his detention. "They would withhold it as punishment."
The Department of Homeland Security expressed disbelief that guards would do that.
"That would never happen," spokesman Bill Strassberger said. "Medication is not withheld. That would cause serious disciplinary action. We have standards that we expect contract facilities to maintain."
The federal government pays county jails about $70 a day to house immigrant detainees.
Abdel-Muhti, who was picked up in New York City as part of a massive post-Sept. 11 sweep of illegal immigrants, was caught in the limbo of being "a man without a country," as the federal judge in Harrisburg who ordered his release described it.
He was moved nine times during his two years in detention and, with each move, there were disruptions in his medication, said one of his attorneys, Shayana Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.
According to internist Kumar Sharma at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, missing medications for high blood pressure on a regular basis can cause heart damage, and missing medications for hypothyroidism can lead to problems with a slow heart rate.
Kadidal said the eight consecutive months that Abdel-Muhti spent in solitary confinement at the York County Prison also took a toll on his health. Homeland Security did not immediately return a call to explain the reason for that punishment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it unconstitutional to hold detainees who have been ordered deported for more than six months, unless there is "a significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future."
Abdel-Muhti was born in the occupied West Bank two decades before Israel assumed control of the territory. The Israeli government has refused him a visa because officials said they could not find his name on a population registry.
A street vendor who helped the alternative radio station WBAI-FM (99.5) in New York arrange interviews with Palestinians, Abdel-Muhti became a cause celebre in jail. He led an eight-day hunger strike to protest conditions at the Passaic County Jail in New Jersey in 2003.
Abdel-Muhti entered the United States illegally in the 1970s and was ordered deported in 1995, but stayed on. He did not come to the attention of authorities again until after Sept. 11.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/cities_neighborhoods/philadelphia/9235145.htm?1c
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