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Associated PressAccused of using illegal workers, the business owner says his support of Palestinian charities led to the charges.
ORLANDO - A prominent Palestinian-American businessman accused of using illegal workers at his stores on Wednesday asked a federal judge to dismiss his case. He said he was being selectively prosecuted because of his support for Palestinian charities.
Attorneys for Jesse Issa Maali also argued that the government prosecution violated his First Amendment rights of association and expression. They also said not one other case of harboring illegal workers in the Middle District of Florida had been criminally prosecuted because those cases traditionally result only in civil fines, a contention disputed by a federal prosecutor.
Maali's attorneys asked U.S. District Judge John Antoon for an evidentiary hearing that would let them question federal agents about their motives if the judge decides not to dismiss the case.
"The vast majority of these cases aren't criminally prosecuted," said attorney H. Eugene Lindsey III. "If the government's case was affected by Mr. Maali's free speech activity, his charitable contributions, then you have an improper motive."
But assistant U.S. attorney Cynthia Hawkins argued that the defense attorneys had been unable to show another case where an employer had not been prosecuted for the same offense Maali is accused of committing.
"Who is out there who is committing these same acts but isn't being charged?" she said.
Hawkins said Maali was accused of hiring 160 illegal workers, although the indictment mentions 53. The magnitude of the allegations also justified criminal prosecution because he is also accused of skimming $4.4-million from his businesses and failing to pay $2.7-million in taxes, she said.
Hawkins also said a change in Immigration and Naturalization Service policy in 2000 emphasized an increase in criminal prosecutions in the hiring of illegal workers, a contention that was disputed by Maali's attorneys.
The hearing was expected to continue today.
Maali was arrested in November 2002 when federal agents raided his businesses and mansion. During his bond hearing, Hawkins argued that Maali was a danger to the community because he had supported groups that advocate violence in the Middle East. That allegation was rejected by a federal magistrate who released Maali on $10-million bail. Maali's case is being closely watched by the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group whose leaders say the case is one of several in which federal authorities have overzealously targeted Muslims.
Other cases include the arrest of former University of South Florida professor Sami Al-Arian, who is accused of using an Islamic think tank to raise money for Palestinian terrorists; the arrest of Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield, whose fingerprint FBI agents initially claimed was found on evidence from the terrorist train bombing in Madrid, an allegation later found to be wrong; and the arrest of Capt. James Yee, a Muslim Army chaplain at the Guantanamo Bay naval station. Army officials later dismissed all charges against Yee, saying national security concerns prevented them from seeking a court-martial in open court.
"From our position, prominent Muslim individuals are being targeted selectively by the government," said Ahmed Bedier, Florida communications director for the Council on American Islamic Relations. "The allegations are overstated, and Muslims are facing a double standard."