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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Bensouda's Supporters Hopeful for Speedy Hearing |
Current rating: 0 |
by Larry
(No verified email address)
Phone: 217-344-8820 |
10 Jun 2002
Modified: 11 Jun 2002 |
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With luck Ahmed Bensouda will be released by Friday, and the community will be able to celebrate. If not, the community's struggle for his release will begin. |
MEDIA ADVISORY
For Immediate Release June 10, 2002
Community Supporters of Detained Man Hopeful for Speedy Hearing
URBANA - On Friday, June 14 at 10 a.m. people in solidarity with an imprisoned international student from the University of Illinois will hold a press conference featuring a statement from the prisoner, Ahmed Bensouda. Bensouda's supporters are hopeful that he will be granted bond on Friday and that his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial will be upheld. However, given that the United States has detained hundreds non-residents for many months without a hearing, his supporters are prepared to begin a campaign for Bensouda's freedom.
The press conference will take place outside the Champaign County Correctional Center, near the corner of Main and Vine streets in Urbana.
To illustrate that Bensouda's fate is shared by hundreds of others, supporters will launch a website about Bensouda featuring the generic name "Larry". The site will be launched at 10 a.m. on Friday, and it will be called www.friendsoflarry.org.
Ahmed Bensouda has been a politically active international student at the University of Illinois, engaged in Palestinian solidarity efforts including a boycott campaign against companies that sell military equipment to Israel. The FBI arrested Bensouda on the afternoon of May 30 and later turned him over to the INS, which claimed that he was in violation of his student visa. Bensouda remains imprisoned in DuPage County, Illinois where he awaits a bond hearing.
For more information, contact:
Raana Ahmed (217) 201-1547 rahmed (at) uiuc.edu
Jason Schultz (217) 417-0535 jamusa (at) hotmail.com
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N.B. - Misspelled Email In Press Release |
by Michael Feltes
mfeltes (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
11 Jun 2002
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Jason Schultz's email is properly spelled jamusa (at) hotmail.com |
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Corrected |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Jun 2002
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Noted and corrected,
ye olde editor |
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In his own words |
by garliconion
garliconion (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
11 Jun 2002
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"I have been in the US on a valid student visa for the
past four years. But to use this visa, I must be
enrolled at the University of Illinois, which I have
not been for the past year and a half. So, I am being
charged with an immigration law violation."
Ahmed Bensouda, 6/11/2002
Now, let me get this straight: he's broken the law. He's admitted to breaking the law. Somehow, the law is not supposed to be applied to him because he's a nice guy, or because he's politically active?
There are people that come from Ahmed's corner of the world that intend to do us ill, and have already done so. It's law enforcement's job to look into these kinds of things - I don't think that the public at large would stand for their government doing anything less. Frankly, it's disturbing that this wasn't noticed earlier. I don't see any evidence that Ahmed is a bad guy, but if he were, he could have done a lot of damage by now.
Rounding people up at random? Absolutely not - totally uncalled for. But when scenarios like this present themselves, fair is fair. What are they supposed to do? Just let him go? Sorry, he broke the law. |
