Dr. Rafil Dhafir, a Manlius oncologist charged with illegally funneling money to Iraq through a charity website, directs his defense from behind a glass partition in the Onondaga County Correctional Facility in Jamesville.

Dhafir’s defense team, prohibited from face-to-face meetings by a required strip search that would violate Dhafir’s Islamic religious values, must press documents against the glass in order for Dhafir to read them, said Devereaux Cannick, the attorney coordinating Dhafir’s defense.

Dhafir will soon be in court once again to attempt to get out from behind that glass. Local activists, outraged by what they perceive as a terrorist witch hunt by the government, are working to help.

Dhafir was indicted Feb. 26 along with three other men, including a former Syracuse University student, on charges of sending money to Iraq through an organization called Help the Needy without acquiring a government permit. Two of the other men posted bail and were released, while authorities were unable to locate the third, who is believed to be outside the United States, said Madis Senner, president of the activist group Jubilee Initiative.

Dhafir is scheduled to appear in federal court for his fourth bail hearing Jan. 22. His requests for bail have been denied on three previous occasions on the grounds that he may flee the country to escape trial, Senner said. The prosecution in the case has argued that Dhafir’s frequent trips to the Middle East and foreign job offers make him a flight risk, Senner said.

The bail proposal drafted by Dhafir’s defense contains measures designed to minimize that risk, including a $2 million bond secured by eight properties and a monitoring system requiring Dhafir to contact a security officer every six hours. Prosecutors have voiced complaints about the package, among them the fact that Dhafir’s residence was not put up as security for the bond, Cannick said.

Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Syracuse could not be immediately reached for comment.

Activists, many of them from Central New York’s Muslim community, have voiced complaints of their own about the government’s handling of the case, Senner said. One of the activists’ biggest concerns is about Dhafir’s Nov. 24 transfer from the Justice Center jail in downtown Syracuse to the Jamesville facility. The move came one day before a planned rally on the Islamic holy day Eid ul-Fitr, a fact that Senner does not believe is mere coincidence.

‘In our opinion, the move was an attempt to quell the dissent,’ Senner said. ‘There’s no doubt that they moved him to send a message.’

Senner said Cannick asked him and other activists to ‘remain quiet’ while the defense tried to negotiate the bail settlement with prosecutors. Now that those talks are over, Senner is planning rallies for the upcoming months.

‘They don’t like it when we’re loud, and we’re going to be loud,’ Senner said.

While activists take to the streets, Dhafir remains behind bars, frustrated by the notion that his defense is being hampered, said Mohamed Khater, who worshiped with Dhafir at the Islamic Center of Central New York and who has visited Dhafir in prison.

‘He maintains that he’s innocent of all charges,’ Khater said.

Published on January 15, 2004 at 12:00 pm