Civil Rights

Update on Ali al-Timimi’s Hearing Last Tuesday

Published

October 28, 2008

Omar Usman

The following message is from Dr. Ali’s wife regarding his latest hearing,

Dear all,

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu:

October 23rd hearing update

During the hearing it was confirmed that the government did spy illegally on Dr. Ali Al-Timimi and failed to turn those calls before the trial as required by the law. However, the judge surprisingly and mistakenly ruled against Dr. Al Timimi regarding these conversations in the following manner:

1- She said she would not de-classify the calls thereby allowing Dr. Al Timimis’ attorneys to show that they would have been useful in his defense.

2- The judge herself declared that these conversations would have not helped him.

However though at the end of the hearing the judge did order the government to search again for five calls that Dr. Al Timimis’ lawyers have identified. The lawyers have provided the government with telephone numbers involved, date of the calls, time, and length, as well as thet content.

The question that remains: will the government honestly search: the NSA, FBI, CIA, and the Department of Defense for these calls, as ordered by the judge, or will it continue to hide them from Dr. Al Timimis’ attorneys like what it did with his other phone calls before the trial?

The lawyers said all we can do now is pray that the government complies with the judge’s order and tells the truth.

Finally, let us not forget that Dr. Al Timimi has been unjustly sentenced to life plus seventy years in prison!

Please distribute this widely especially to legal blogs.

May Allah reward you.

Ziyana

May Allah (swt) free him and grant his family ease in this time of difficulty.

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Omar Usman

Omar Usman is a founding member of MuslimMatters and Qalam Institute. He teaches Islamic seminars across the US including Khateeb Workshop and Fiqh of Social Media. He has served in varying administrative capacities for multiple national and local Islamic organizations. You can follow his work at ibnabeeomar.com.

12 Comments

AmatulWadood

October 28, 2008 at 4:45 PM

Ameen.

(12:21) وَاللّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَى أَمْرِهِ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لاَ يَعْلَمُونَ

Reply
ibn alHyderabadee

October 28, 2008 at 4:56 PM

Ameen

Reply
ilmsummitee

October 28, 2008 at 7:36 PM

وَيَمْكُرُونَ وَيَمْكُرُ اللّهُ وَاللّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ (8:30)

Reply
ilmsummitee

October 28, 2008 at 7:39 PM

وَاللَّهُ وَلِيُّ الْمُتَّقِينَ

Reply
aarij

October 28, 2008 at 10:38 PM

It’s so painful to read this about our beloved Shaikh. Subhan Allah, what a test this has been.

Reply
abu abdAllah, the Houstonian

October 29, 2008 at 1:25 AM

bismillah. AllahoMusta’aan! this update paints the results of the trial in the best light in my opinion (as an observer, not as an attorney). perhaps the single most redeeming quality of the US Judiciary (as a whole, but especially at its highest levels of appeal) in criminal cases has been the way in which cases of Prosecutorial misconduct have been treated. especially when exculpatory evidence has been suppressed (sorry about the law-speak: especially when a prosecutor has deliberately withheld and/or conspired (with police, politicians, or even lower-court-judges) to withhold evidence that would prove or help to prove the innocence of a defendant) — in such situations relief for the defendant has extended so far as to void the prior conviction(s) and then to further punish the government/prosecutor by declaring that the defendant cannot be retried on those charges.

i pray that Allah will give such “extraordinary” relief to Shaykh Dr. Ali Al-Timimi, or even better than what i can imagine, for that would be easy for Him.

a few aspects of the first trial may affect the amount of hope to express here: was the first trial a jury trial? if it was a jury trial, then the role of the jury is to decide whether evidence is exculpatory or not — in other words only a jury could declare “that these [missing] conversations [mentioned in the article] would have not helped him.”

but if Dr. Al-Timimi waived his right to a jury trial… then he would have thereby given that power of the jury to his trial judge. in which case, the judge’s ruling in his appeal may be wrong but still legally binding, wAllaho’Alim.

with regard to:

1- She said she would not de-classify the calls thereby allowing Dr. Al Timimis’ attorneys to show that they would have been useful in his defense.

is there no attorney on his defense team with a high enough security clearance to see the evidence (and then, if necessary, to argue to the judge in closed and classified hearings with the govt. present)?

it shows we need more Muslims to pursue careers that give them such a security clearance that they could help avert evil in a case like this. wAllaho’Alim.

Reply
abu abdAllah, the Houstonian

October 29, 2008 at 4:30 AM

bismillah. and the… [edited by abu AbdAllah: the post to which i replied has been disapproved/withdrawn… so my reply is unnecessary, too… for now.]

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AbuZakariyya

October 31, 2008 at 6:16 PM

those going for hajj, please make dua for him and other Muslim prisoners on the day of Arafah (and ofcourse at other times too)!

Reply
Ziyana Al-Rawahi

November 2, 2008 at 10:22 PM

Dr. Ali Al-Timimi had a trial by jury. Both his main trial attorney Edward MacMahon and his main appeals attorney Jonathan Turley have very high security clearance, higher than the prosecutor. The problem is that the government purposely abusing the law by using exparte filings (eleven so far) and over classified material such as pure legal arguments. This has effectively created a one way communication the government and the judge for the last four years. Thereby denying Dr. Al-Timimi the ability to assist his lawyers and denying his lawyers the ability to prove his innocence.

In the October 23rd hearing it was established that the government did violate his constitutional and legal rights by illegally wiretapping him without a warrant and by withholding evidence that he asked for prior to the trial. However, the judge is still denying relief in this case and has asked the government to go back and search (NSA, FBI, CIA, DOD) for five phone conversations which will prove his innocence.

The question is how we can be certain the government will produce these conversations given its track record of five years of lying in court.

Reply
Anonymous

November 3, 2008 at 10:12 AM

Ziyana,

1. Bamford’s recent book on the NSA wiretapping is a must-read.

2. Why would those 5 conversations prove his innocence?

Reply
zaki

February 14, 2009 at 1:25 PM

We hope this fitnah that Shaykh Ali is going through will remove his sins and elevate his station in Jannah ‘inshaa Allaah.

Reply
Salih Muhammad

November 10, 2009 at 6:29 AM

Is there an address that we may send letters to?

Reply