Lawyers for a disabled Islamic preacher jailed in Manhattan said on Monday that the Federal Bureau of Prisons had recently imposed harsh new restrictions on their client, which have made it harder for him to prepare for his trial.
The preacher, Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, 54, has been held in a highly secure wing of the Metropolitan Correctional Center since his extradition from Britain in October. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired in a 1998 kidnapping of tourists in Yemen and in an attempt to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
His lawyers, speaking at a hearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan and in interviews afterward, said that about two weeks ago, jail officials imposed special administrative measures, known as SAMs, on Mr. Mostafa.
Such measures, which severely restrict an inmate’s communications with outsiders other than lawyers or immediate family members, are used when a finding is made that there is “a substantial risk” that an inmate’s communications “could result in death or serious bodily injury” to others, officials say.
The measures may also limit what Mr. Mostafa may read or his access to a computer, the lawyers said. They contended that no incident had warranted such restrictions on their client, who is also severely disabled, having lost the lower portions of both arms in explosions years ago.
One lawyer, Joshua L. Dratel, said after the hearing that the measures were arbitrary, “an excuse for whatever” the jail “doesn’t want to provide” to Mr. Mostafa on any particular day.
The lawyers also noted that their client, who is also known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, had not yet been provided with a new prosthetic device that he was to have been fitted with, complicating his ability to care for himself in prison. Mr. Mostafa has long worn a hook as a prosthetic device, which officials have said he may use while in his cell.
The Bureau of Prisons said it would not comment on an inmate’s specific conditions of confinement. As for Mr. Mostafa’s prostheses, a spokesman reiterated an earlier statement, saying that the agency “makes every reasonable accommodation that is consistent with safety and security,” and that the process of “acquiring new prosthetics in this case continues.”
New Restrictions Imposed on Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, Lawyers Say
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New Restrictions Imposed on Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, Lawyers Say
