URGENT ACTION REQUIRED: Emergency Request for Donation

Respected Brothers and Sisters
Alsalam Allaikum:

Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar’s case has been scheduled for trial on October 16th, 2006. The trial will take place in the district court in Chicago, IL with Federal Judge Amy St. Eve presiding over the case.
Free Dr. Ashqar Committee (FDAC) is under tremendous pressure to raise $325,000 immediately to pay off the remaining balance for Mr. Bill Moffit (the previous attorney for Dr. Sami Al-Arian) as the lead attorney and also to pay the incurring legal expenses. Mr. Moffit has recently completed a successful trial representing Dr. Sami Al-Arian who was found not guilty on some of the major federal charges against him. It is essential that the Committee raises the $325,000 amount within one month (by August 31st, 2006).

The court proceedings are expected to last at least 3-4 months. The initial estimated legal fees and other expenses to cover the entire trial are projected to reach $750, 000. This amount has been estimated based on attorney fees and expected expenses. The expenses will cover the following items:

1. The Government released 29 boxes of documents and about 4000 hours of Audio tapes, these documents and audio tapes need to be translated, sorted, scanned and more importantly to be analyzed by the attorneys. That a mount of work is very costly
2. Room and Lodging: The trial will take place in Chicago, the attorneys need hotels, transportation and other related expenses.
3. Transportation and fees for expert witnesses: The defense might call expert witness from the US and from overseas to testify on behalf of Dr. Ashqar. The trial is not only about Dr. Ashqar but rather about Islam, the Palestinian cause and legal activities on behalf of our legitimate causes.
4. Graphic Designer: to develop the graphs to be presented to the Jury
5. Pollster: to conduct a survey about deep hatred for Islam and Muslims as result of media and forces of darkness that have been trying to portray Arabs and Muslims as terrorists and Eventually Dr. Ashqar will not be given a fair trial.
6. Public Relations expenses: to make advertisements and press conferences to encounter the campaign to portray Dr. Ashqar as a terrorist

Finally, the defense team will include six committed, highly skilled attorneys to do all works related to the trial ( research, analyzing the case, Jury selection, 3-4 months of trial) . Free Dr. Ashqar is trying every thing humanly possible to win this case. The implications of this case are devastating if things did not go well:

1. Dr. Ashqar would have to spend the rest of his life in jail
2. The government or some forces in the government would have the justification to criminalize all sorts of activism and go after activists and try to do to them the same thing they did to Dr. ashqar

Background:

On September 15th, 2004, Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar was released from Jail on bond from solitary confinement at the Metropolitan Correction Facility (MCC) in Chicago to Home Incarceration. The $2.6 million bond was set awaiting trial on criminal contempt, obstruction of justice and racketeering to provide material support to Hamas. The US attorney lifted the civil contempt charge on October 8, 2003 and indicted him on criminal contempt (to punish him for refusing to testify against some Muslim Organizations, Palestinian and Muslim activists, friends and scholars). After the many years of harassment and targeting of constitutionally protected activities the Government again is torturing Dr. Ashqar. He was arrested in his home on August 19, 2004 on a superseding indictment claming that he is part of a criminal conspiracy to aid Hamas.
Most of the alleged activities presented in the indictment against Dr. Ashqar occur before 1994, a time when Hamas was not designated as a terrorist organization. Moreover the alleged activities even if true were lawful activities. In order to avoid statute of limitation problems the Government alleges that Dr. Ashqar’s refusal to testify before two grand juries are overt acts in support of the criminal conspiracy of racketeering.