Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch

arrested on immigration charges and ultimately deported to Syria in 2004. 94 While he was
in jail, his mother died of a stroke. 95 And after he was deported, he was soon arrested
and detained by the Syrian police and disappeared; while his family had brief contact
with him upon his deportation, they have had no contact with him at all in almost a year
and do not know what has happened to him. 96
Continued Restrictions on Liberty after Release
Some material witnesses were released from detention but continued to be subjected to
conditions restricting their liberty. In these cases too, the restrictions lasted far longer
than necessary to secure testimony in a criminal proceeding.
Ismail Diab
As of June 2005, the government still has not obtained the testimony of material witness
and U.S. citizen Dr. Ismail Diab, although Diab has had his liberty restricted—by
incarceration and then supervised release—for almost eighteen months. 97
On March 1, 2003, the government arrested Diab, a researcher in animal genetics, in
Syracuse, New York, where he lives with his wife and three children. 98 The government
alleged Diab had testimony relevant to the criminal case against four defendants facing
trial for conspiring to violate U.S. economic sanctions against Iraq through their
donations to and solicitations for Help the Needy, a charity that has supported orphans
and poor children in Iraq since 1995. 99
Within a week after his arrest as a material witness, the district court released fifty-twoyear-old
Diab on a $20,000 bond, under the conditions that he wear an electronic
monitoring bracelet, be largely confined to his home, surrender his passport, and remain
subject to a curfew until the government obtained his testimony. 100 After the
94
Human Rights Watch, “Empty Promises: Diplomatic Assurances No Safeguard against Torture,” Vol. 16, No. 4
(D), April 2004, p. 16-17 (discussing allegation of torture of Maher Arar in Syrian prisons).
95
Ann Mullen, “Kuwaiti Waits,” Detroit Metro Times, June 4, 2003.
96
HRW/ACLU e-mail correspondence with family members of Nabil al-Marabh, May 12, 2005.
97
Docket, United States v. Dhafir, Crim. No. 03-64 (N.D.N.Y. 2003); William Kates, “Man Held as Witness in
Probe of Charity,” Albany Times Union, March 5, 2003 (Kates, “Man Held as Witness”).
98
Kates, “Man Held as Witness.”
99
According to Diab, Help the Needy helped “the most needy people on Earth, the Iraqi children” during their
suffering from the imposition of the United Nations economic embargo on the country. Sam Skolnik, Daikha
Dridi, and Paul Shukovsky, “Inquiry Targets Muslim Charities in the Palouse,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Aug. 2,
2002.
100
Docket, United States v. Dhafir, Crim. No. 03-64 (N.D.N.Y. 2003); Kates, “Man Held as Witness.”
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G) 30