Nine Days After Assault on Detainee:

Attacker Still on Duty; Detainee Punished with Transfer, Segregation

Tell Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Stop the Cover-up!

Tell Congress: Investigate the Abuses

On March 5, 2005, at the San Pedro detention center in California, ICE agent M. Lopez laughed at and made fun of immigration detainee Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan's illness and refused to let him use the bathroom, then brutally assaulted detainee Mohammed Mirmehdi after Mohammed and his brother Mostafa questioned Lopez's treatment of Mr. Hamdan.

Nine days later, ICE officials Gloria Kee and Victor Cerda seem to have ignored the more than 100 letters, emails, faxes and phone calls they received from concerned citizens and advocacy organizations--demanding immediate medical care for Mr. Hamdan and Mohammed Mirmehdi, that Lopez be removed from duty while an investigation proceeds, and that Mr. Hamdan and all four of the Mirmehdi brothers be freed from unjust detention.

ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice claimed that Mohammed Mirmehdi hit Lopez and both men fell down and were bruised. But the ACLU visited Mohammed and stated that the marks on his body are not compatible with that story, and indicate that excessive force was used against Mohammed.

While scandals grow around torture by US officials overseas, ICE officials are attempting to cover up torture and abuse by one of their own agents in San Pedro, California:

- ICE is refusing to hand over its digital and Polaroid photographs of Mohammed Mirmehdi's injuries, and its videotape of the assault and the events leading up to it. Attorney Marc Van Der Hout, attorney for Mr. Hamdan and the Mirmehdi brothers, specifically requested copies of these materials in a March 7 letter to Gloria Kee and other officials.

- ICE has refused to provide medical care to Mohammed Mirmehdi--who is in severe pain and may have bone fractures--despite a formal request from his lawyer that a doctor be sent to see him immediately.

- ICE moved Mohammed to the Santa Ana jail as punishment following the incident and is holding him in segregation (solitary confinement) and refusing to allow him regular access to his attorneys.

- ICE has not removed agent Lopez from duty. He is still working at the San Pedro facility. Likewise, two guards employed by the private security company MVM who were present during the incident--D. Barnes and T. Logan--have not been removed from duty, even though they failed to sound an alarm during Lopez's assault and their only intervention was to try to prevent other detainees from witnessing it.

- ICE is still refusing to allow the media to do in-person interviews with Mohammed Mirmehdi (are they waiting for his visible bruises to go away?), his brothers, Mr. Hamdan, or any of the other detainees who witnessed the March 5 incident.

Contact ICE to ask: Why hasn't ICE given the lawyers a copy of the videotape and photographs? Why has Mohammed Mirmehdi not yet seen a doctor? Why is he being punished with transfer and segregation? Why hasn't Mr. Hamdan received medical treatment? Why are Mr. Hamdan and the Mirmehdi brothers still detained? Why is the media banned from interviewing them in person?

Gloria Kee, field operations director of ICE Detention and Removal Office in Los Angeles, 606 South Olive Street, 8th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90014; phone 213-830-7913 or 213-830-7970; fax 213-830-7973; email gloria.kee@dhs.gov

Victor Cerda, head of ICE Detention and Removal Office in Washington, 801 "I" St., NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20536; phone 202-514-8663; fax 202-353-9435; email (c/o ICE Chief of Staff Shelly Han), shelly.han@dhs.gov

Send copies to Mr. Hamdan's support committee at mail@adclaoc.org and to the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants at chri@itapnet.org

ALSO, contact your senators and representatives to urge them to ensure a thorough investigation into the March 5 assault on Mohammed Mirmehdi, and all other incidents of torture and abuse in US detention centers: call via the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or get the contact info for your representative and senators through http://www.house.gov/writerep and http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Press inquiries about the Hamdan and Mirmehdi cases can be directed to attorneys Stacy Tolchin and Marc Van Der Hout at 415-981-3000, ext. 320. Press inquiries about the Hamdan case can also be directed to Ahilan Arulanantham at the ACLU Southern California, 213-977-9500.

Mr. Hamdan's support committee can be reached through the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) Los Angeles/Orange County Chapter, 714-535-1719, mail@adclaoc.org

For background on the assault, see the March 5 action alert at:
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2005/03/123418.php or http://www.lifeorliberty.org/libertyblog/archives/000078.html

and press coverage at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050310/news_1n10brothers.html http://www.grandforks.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/north ern_california/11084995.htm

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