Attorneys Say Detainees' Rights Violated

ByABC News
October 29, 2001, 3:01 PM

Oct. 26 -- The Justice Department is sweeping up suspects and possible witnesses in its anti-terror campaign. But when asked for details about those detained, officials invoke national security.

The government refuses to say who is being detained, when they will be released, or what the charges are. While this may not be illegal, lawyers for the detainees charge the secrecy is hiding serious violations of citizens' rights and even some physical coercion.

"It's nothing more than a witch hunt and a fishing expedition. People are being denied their freedom without due process of law," said attorney Randall Hamud, who represents three detainees.

The government is making no apologies for using every legal means it has to thwart terrorists. "Let terrorists among us be warned," Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday. "If you overstay your visas even by one day, we will arrest you. If you violate a local law, we will work to make sure that you are put in jail and kept in custody as long as possible."

But citizens' rights advocates are distressed that some of those detained don't even have lawyers.

Death at a Detention Center

At a detention center in Kearny, N.J., a 55-year-old Pakistani man died in his cell last week more than a month after being detained. Officials said the man, Muhammed Rafiq Butt, died of apparent heart failure.

The FBI decided soon after it detained Butt that he knew nothing of any attack and a spokesman said he was held for having overstayed his visa. The Pakistani embassy said it was never notified that a man by that name was in prison.

The government said Butt waived his right to representation. But since neither his embassy nor prisoners' rights advocates knew he was being held, they could not, as they normally would, advise him of his need for a lawyer.

"Did he fall through the cracks? We simply don't know," said Jeanne Butterfield, head of the Immigration Lawyers Association in Washington. "That he was unrepresented by counsel and did not seek bond in front of an immigration judge just makes the case all the more sad."