Organize the South

Shifa Sadequee will be sentenced on Monday, December 14. Please come to the hearing and provide support. Gather at 10 am at the Russel Federal Building in Downtown Atlanta.

For more information, look at the Free Shifa website at freeshifa.com.

Below is the synapsis of the case taken from the Free Shifa site.

Ehsanul “Shifa” Sadequee is an American born US citizen kidnapped from Bangladesh at 19 and detained unconstitutionally in solitary confinement since 2006. He has been subjected to a physical assault to his head, denied medical care, and has suffered psychological abuse at the federal prison in Atlanta, GA. Shifa endured punishment and torture for over 1200 days (over 3 years) in solitary confinement before the trial began.

For a long period, Shifa was denied access to information on the charges or evidence against him. The so-called “evidence” used to convict him consisted of on-line chats, visiting & taping tourist sites, and translating and publishing scholarly religious texts from Arabic to English. His First Amendment rights to religious beliefs, translation and publication of scholarly and academic literature, free speech, and debates have been violated.

Shifa Sadequee was convicted on August 12 on four counts of conspiracy and attempt to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations. The evidence is flimsy and the laws are all based on “pre-emptive prosecution” to convict people before a crime has been committed. This case is part of a larger strategy from the Bush era of targeting Muslims for detention and discrimination – through policies of torture, illegal wiretapping and detentions throughout the U.S. and at Guantanamo. We must work together in this new era of hope to end these unjust policies and to remember individuals like Shifa who are still suffering the consequences.