7 Suspected of PLO Ties Say Rights Are Denied

Lawyers for a group of Arab immigrants, facing deportation for allegedly belonging to a Palestinian terrorist group, protested to a U.S. immigration judge Wednesday that their clients were being held under “severe conditions of confinement” in violation of their legal rights.

Even so, the six Jordanian men and a Kenyan woman married to one of them, who were picked up from their homes in a sweep Monday by immigration agents, opted to forgo a bail hearing until Tuesday to give their attorneys time to prepare their defense.

“It’s a great hardship,” attorney Brian Hudson told U.S. Immigration Judge Thomas Y.K. Fong during a hearing to set bond for the defendants charged with violating a 35-year-old immigration law designed to combat world communism.

Some of the defendants, who are accused of being members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist offshoot of the Palestine Liberation Organization, were “kept in isolation,” had “lights turned on around the clock” and were denied access to sanitary facilities and medical aid, Hudson said. Attorneys also complained that five of the defendants were being held at a federal center in San Diego, far from their families and lawyers.

In light of the grim prison conditions painted by defense attorneys, Fong asked those prefering to remain in jail without bond to stand up. They all did.

Fong described the charges as “rather serious ones which may involve national security endangerment,” but neither he nor INS attorneys elaborated.

“The deportation charge relates to individuals that are involved in communist-oriented organizations,” Tom Gaines, acting INS deputy district director, said after the hearing. “It is our belief that for aspects of national security they should remain in custody until an appropriate decision can be made as to their bond.”

According to their attorneys, all have denied ever participating in activities involving the PLO splinter group--either in this country or abroad--which was involved in a series of skyjackings in the 1970s. Supporters, who rallied outside the courtroom and sought a congressional investigation, maintain that they are victims of a “witch hunt” because of their nationality.

After a 10-month FBI investigation, six of the defendants were charged with violations of the 1952 McCarran-Walter immigration law, which prohibits membership or affiliation in a subversive organization or advocacy of subversive doctrines.

Two other Arab-Americans, who did not appear at Wednesday’s hearing, and the Kenyan face lesser deportation charges.

A federal order alleges that six of the nine “circulated” material “advocating or teaching economic, international and governmental doctrines of world communism.” INS attorneys Elizabeth Hacker and Melainie Fitzsimmons told the court that they would produce “three to four government witnesses” to support their case.

The seven defendants, some dressed in blue jeans, sweat shirts, jogging togs and sneakers, sat in a tiny immigration courtroom in the downtown Federal Building. Relatives were barred from the proceeding because of a lack of space, which was filled by four armed INS guards, lawyers and a handful of journalists.

After a brief recess, a deportation hearing was begun in the same courtroom before U.S. Immigration Judge Ingrid Hrycenko, who granted a continuance until Feb. 17.

A crowd of supporters packed a corridor outside the courtroom. They cheered and made victory signs when the seven were escorted in and out under armed guard. Unlike their initial hearing on Monday, however, the seven were not shackled.

“It’s like a nightmare,” said a visibly shaken Adib Sharif, 33, brother of one of the defendants, Naim Nadim Sharif, 26, of Northridge. “Everybody comes to this country because it’s the greatest in the world. But when something like this happens, it makes you doubt it.”

Partner in Firm

Abed Barakat, brother of defendant Aiad Khaled Barakat, 26, with whom he is a partner in a Glendale building contracting firm, said: “My brother is proud of his Palestinian heritage, but he doesn’t belong to any political groups.”

Earlier, more than 100 supporters marched in front of the Federal Building to protest the government’s actions.

“This is a witch hunt, pure and simple,” said attorney James Kaddo, noting that the charges brought against those arrested are based on a law enacted during the McCarthy era.

Meanwhile, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) will ask to meet with FBI officials within two weeks to discuss the arrests, the congressman’s office in Washington said.

“There appear to be questions of civil liberties and proper procedure,” said Julian Epstein, legislative director for Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice.

Also on Wednesday, James J. Zogby, director of the Arab American Institute in Washington, called on Conyers and Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, to investigate the arrests.

Attend College

Facing deportation for subversive activities are: Khader Musa Hamide, 32, of Glendale, the alleged leader of the California unit of the terrorist group; Amjad Mustafa Obeid, 23, an engineering student at California State University, Long Beach; his brother, Ayman Mustafa Obeid, 24, also an engineering student at the same school; Michel Ibrahim Nasif Shehadeh, 30, of Long Beach, another student at Cal State Long Beach; Barakat and Sharif.

Facing charges of overstaying her visa is Julie Nyangugi Mungabh, 28, of Kenya, the wife of Hamide. Also facing lesser charges are students Ghabah Hawwari, 24, and her brother, Haitham Hawwari, 19, who are scheduled to appear before an immigration judge today in an effort to get their $25,000 bail reduced.

Times staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow and Michael Mills in Washington contributed to this article.