Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, calls on all people of conscience to demand that Dr. Sami Al-Arian is immediately freed from his political imprisonment. Dr. Al-Arian is a Palestinian former University of Florida professor who is currently on his 58th day of a water-only hunger strike. He is protesting his maltreatment by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) which violated an earlier plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further cooperation with the government. According to his lawyer, the DOJ wanted Dr. Al-Arian to testify before a grand jury in Virginia. When he refused, citing his plea agreement, he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail.

Dr. Al-Arian is currently being held at a medical facility in North Carolina. Family members who recently visited him reported that he had lost 53 pounds, equivalent to more than 25 percent of his body weight. He is no longer able to walk or stand on his own.

More information on Dr. Al-Arian's ordeal can be found in the transcript of a recent interview with his wife, Nahla Al-Arian. See: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255

ACTION

We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.

Call, Email and Write:

1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20530-0001

Fax Number: (202) 307-6777

Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr

2426 Rayburn Building

Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-5126

(202) 225-0072 Fax

John.Conyers@mail.house. gov

3- Senator Patrick Leahy

433 Russell Senate Office Building

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

(299029)224- 4242

senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia

401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

PO Box 131352

Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA

Tel: 760-685-3243

Fax: 360-933-3568

E-mail: info@al-awda.org

http://www.al-awda.org/

New Jersey Solidarity - Activists for the Liberation of Palestine

http://www.newjerseysolidarity.org/

info@newjerseysolidarity.org

973-954-2521

Generation After Generation Until Total Liberation - FREE PALESTINE!

Don't forget to sign the Rutgers University Divest from israeli Apartheid Petition at: http://www.rutgersdivest.org

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