Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch
Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch
Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch
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Soliman Biheiri<br />
In June 2003, the FBI arrested as a material witness Soliman Biheiri, then a U.S. citizen<br />
with three U.S. citizen children. The Justice Department suspected Biheiri of doing<br />
financial work for Abu Marzook, a well-known leader of Hamas. It informed the court<br />
that it intended <strong>to</strong> bring Biheiri in front of a grand jury investigating terrorist financing<br />
networks in Chicago. For two months, the government never called Biheiri <strong>to</strong> testify in<br />
front of a grand jury but continued <strong>to</strong> argue in court that his detention was necessary<br />
because of his alleged connections <strong>to</strong> terrorist suspects. 109<br />
Just as the court was going <strong>to</strong> order Biheiri released, after he had been held without<br />
charges in high-security jails for more than two months, the government charged him<br />
with an obscure non-terrorist related crime: unlawful procurement of naturalization<br />
based on a false statement he had made in 1990 immigration applications. 110 In 1990,<br />
Biheiri had listed himself as the vice president of his company on immigration<br />
documents, when in fact he was the president. The government used this misstatement<br />
<strong>to</strong> allege that Biheiri committed fraud on his 2000 naturalization application, when he<br />
answered “no” <strong>to</strong> the question of whether he had ever committed a crime for which he<br />
had not been convicted. According <strong>to</strong> his at<strong>to</strong>rney:<br />
It’s not a coincidence that they held him and never put him in front of a<br />
grand jury and then dismissed him as a material witness when they had<br />
built up charges against him. … My sense is that they had nothing on<br />
him <strong>to</strong> hold him as a material witness. They were just trying <strong>to</strong> buy time<br />
<strong>to</strong> find something. The irony is that he was completely innocent of any<br />
terrorist allegation. The government was never able <strong>to</strong> find a credible<br />
ground <strong>to</strong> bring terrorism charges—they never produced enough proof<br />
<strong>to</strong> even charge him. Instead, they charged him on a completely unrelated<br />
immigration charge, which they based on a visa application they dug up<br />
from 12 years ago. And even then, when the government couldn’t<br />
obtain an indictment on Biheiri for terrorism charges, the government<br />
sought a ten-year enhancement for terrorism associations during<br />
109<br />
HRW/ACLU telephone interview with James Clark, lead criminal defense at<strong>to</strong>rney for Soliman Biheiri,<br />
Alexandria, Virginia, April 8, 2004 (Interview with James Clark).<br />
110<br />
HRW/ACLU telephone interview with Nina Ginsberg, criminal defense at<strong>to</strong>rney for Soliman Biheiri,<br />
Washing<strong>to</strong>n, D.C., April 8, 2004. According <strong>to</strong> Ginsberg:<br />
During his material witness detention, the government did not put him on the witness stand<br />
or charge Soliman until the judge finally after two months <strong>to</strong>ld the government that he was<br />
going <strong>to</strong> release him unless the government charged him. The government then criminally<br />
charged him with immigration fraud—lying on his naturalization application.<br />
Ibid.<br />
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH VOL. 17, NO. 2(G) 34