Thursday, December 06, 2001

Middle East Detainee Conducts Hunger Strike
A French citizen from Djibouti, in East Africa, Mr. Seif is one of 93 men whom the government identified last week as having been indicted or charged with crimes as a result of the investigation into the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He is widely believed to be the lone man among the 93 who is protesting his treatment by refusing to eat. He has lost 25 pounds, restricting his intake to water, and weighs about 150 pounds.

But like many on the list, Mr. Seif, 36, who graduated from a flying school here and once flew turboprop planes for Djibouti Airlines, has not been charged with any crime that links him to the attacks. He was arrested in October on five felony counts, charged with providing false information to the Social Security Administration in 1999 and to the Federal Aviation Administration last year on questions about his name, ancestry and birthplace.

All that, the government says, makes him a criminal. Additional charges of bank fraud, arising out of information on credit-card applications, are generally expected to be filed against him by next week.

At a hearing here last month, John Bauman, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testified that the government had no evidence to suggest that Mr. Seif was involved with the attacks or that he knew about them beforehand.

"This is government policy now," Mr. Hoidal said today, explaining why he believed that prosecutors were pressing so hard to convict his client, who has lived in the Phoenix metropolitan region occasionally since his brother attended Arizona State University in the early 1990's. "Ninety-three people are facing similar charges. Most are from the Middle East, and they have Muhammad, or a form of the word, in their names. So the government is bringing whatever charges they can against persons caught up in the investigation."
At a hearing here last month, John Bauman, an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, testified that the government had no evidence to suggest that Mr. Seif was involved with the attacks or that he knew about them beforehand.

"This is government policy now," Mr. Hoidal said today, explaining why he believed that prosecutors were pressing so hard to convict his client, who has lived in the Phoenix metropolitan region occasionally since his brother attended Arizona State University in the early 1990's. "Ninety-three people are facing similar charges. Most are from the Middle East, and they have Muhammad, or a form of the word, in their names. So the government is bringing whatever charges they can against persons caught up in the investigation."
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/06/national/06ARIZ.html

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