Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch

her marriage to Azmath. 322 Citing national security concerns, the Andhra government
initiated deportation proceedings against Murad, who was pregnant with Azmath’s
child. 323 Khan’s family faced harassment in predominantly-Hindu Hyderabad. 324
Because of the two men’s incarceration, their families in India lost a primary source of
family income. In India, Khan and his family “suffered a lot during the government’s
investigation of me. My mother went into shock.” 325 Nonetheless, Khan’s mother,
through her daughter, began a campaign to release her son, or at to least find out why he
was being held, writing government officials and the United Nations.
When Khan and Azmath returned to India, Indian authorities detained and questioned
both of them. The Hyderabad authorities criminally charged Khan and Azmath with
passport fraud and, as of June 2005, were still routinely interviewing them and inspecting
their homes. 326 The two men have faced anti-Muslim discrimination in India and believe
the fall-out from the material witness arrests includes their inability to move forward on
their plans to open a small business.
“Evansville Eight”
The “Evansville Eight” material witnesses suffered serious financial consequences from
their detentions as material witnesses. Although the FBI apologized to the eight
wrongfully detained men and the Muslim community in Evansville, the apology did not
mitigate the community’s suspicions and the impact on the restaurant owned by Tarek
Albasti, where several of the other material witnesses worked. As Albasti describes:
[A]fter we were released we were in hell, you tell yourself, okay, well they
released us so everyone should understand we are innocent, but that was
not the case. Because I mean there are some people who support you
and stuff like this but everyone is curious: did you snitch on somebody
else, or did you make a deal with the government, or why were you
released, or did you really do something or not. And just you know you
322
Interview with Mohammad Azmath.
323
After a legal battle (and the FBI’s clearance of Azmath as a suspect in the September 11 investigation), the
Indian Central Government overturned the deportation order and issued Murad a one-year extension of her
visa. Omer Farooq, “Pakistani Woman Escapes Deportation,” BBC News, Sept. 23, 2002.
324
Interview with Ayub Ali Khan.
325
Interview with Ayub Ali Khan; Farooq, “One-Time Terror Suspect Claims …”
326
Syed Amin Jafri, “Cases in AP against Indians in Custody,” India Abroad, Sept. 21, 2001.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G) 98