NJ Muslim leader testifies about torture

by This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it /The Star-Ledger

Monday June 02, 2008, 12:44 PM

The fourth and final day of the deportation trial of one of New Jersey's most prominent Muslim leaders, Mohammad Qatanani, brought emotional testimony from the man the government is seeking to send back to the Middle East.

During nearly three hours on the witness stand this morning, Qatani, the imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, recounted how he was tortured by Israeli interrogaters in 1993 when he was detained on a trip from Jordan back to Palestine to visit relatives. For some 30 days, said Qatanani, they verbally and physically abused him.

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger Imam Mohammad Qatanani waves to his supporters during the lunch break.

"I don't want my children to be here," Qatanani said when asked about the verbal threats, pausing to maintain his composure. "I am sorry judge, it is a situation you cannot immagine. They say we put your kids in the street. We will kill your family."

Qatanani went on to describe hours of confinement, handcuffed in painful positions and with a putrid hood pulled down over his head.

Over objections of Alan Wolf, assistant chief counsel for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the imam's attorney, Claudia Slovinksy, asked her client to review some of those positions in illustrations provided by Human Rights Watch.

"It is a kind of death, judge," said Qatanani. "You feel death is better than life. A human being in that place has no rights, he has nothing."

The government asserts that an Israeli military court convicted the imam for assisting Hamas, and that he was not truthful when he applied for permanent U.S. residence. During testimony today, Qatanani denied he was ever a member of Hamas, and that he ever made a confession to that effect to the Israelis.

As his lawyer finished up the morning session, the popular religious leader explained why he wanted to remain in the United States.

"I have been here 13 years," he said. "This country became my country. It became my family ... It is a country of freedom, of democracy. We have now a journey to continue. This country has a very beautiful society."

This afternoon, the trial will conclude with cross-examination of the imam by government lawyers.