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July 15, 2005 latimes.com : California

ACLU Seeks Freedom for Muslim Accused of Ties to Terrorists

# A Buena Park man has been jailed for a year on suspicion of aiding Hamas. No evidence exists of security threat, civil rights petition says.

By H.G. Reza, Times Staff Writer

Civil rights lawyers asked a federal judge Thursday to free a Buena Park man who has been jailed for a year after Homeland Security officials accused him of having ties to terrorism.

The American Civil Liberties Union petitioned U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on behalf of Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, who was prosecuted for being in the United States illegally. An immigration judge this year ordered him deported and refused to grant him bail while he appealed, on grounds that he was a threat to national security.

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The 17-page petition says "there is not one shred of evidence in support of the government's argument that Hamdan poses a danger to national security." It calls his continued detention arbitrary, unlawful and capricious.

Hamdan's case has been a rallying cry for critics of the Bush administration's practice of using allegations of terrorism as grounds to arrest Muslims. In many cases, the suspects are never charged with terrorist crimes but instead are prosecuted for immigration law violations.

Hamdan, 44, worked as a fundraiser for the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity shut down by U.S. officials in December 2001 after it was accused of supporting Hamas, which was designated a Palestinian terrorist organization in 1997. The foundation's president, chairman and director of endowments also were arrested July 27 and charged with terrorism-related crimes. They are awaiting trial but were released on their own recognizance after a federal judge ruled the government had failed to prove they were flight risks and a threat to national security.

"The government cannot justify its decision to detain Hamdan while releasing [foundation] executives who it conceded were more knowledgeable about and responsible for [the group's] activities," said the petition written by ACLU lawyer Ranjana Natarajan. Her writ also said Hamdan was not involved in the distribution of funds he collected for the charity and that U.S. officials "never even attempted to prove Hamdan raised funds with the intent to further terrorist activity."

Lori Haley, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Laguna Niguel, said an immigration court ruled that Hamdan "should have known that his activities constituted material support for a terrorist organization."

She also defended the government's tactics in the case. "We're going to use every tool at our disposal to safeguard our country and prevent individuals from obtaining funds here to advance the aim of terrorist organizations," Haley said.

Homeland Security officials said Hamdan had been living in the U.S. illegally on a student visa issued more than 25 years ago. Yet the agency working to deport Hamdan â€â€