At a federal hearing on the case in Winston-Salem, Mekki was charged only with falsifying U.S. visa applications. About 40 supporters attended the September 23 hearing. The federal magistrate refused to release him on bail.

"We know he is innocent. We know him very well. He’s a young guy, very kind and very decent," Jamal Omer told the press. Omer has worked as a taxi driver with Mekki for the past two years.

Co-workers, friends, and political activists organized "Friends of Mekki" as soon as they found out about the arrest. According to Badi Ali, a member of the group and president of the Islamic Center of the Triad, where Mekki attends Friday services, "We knew we had to act quickly." The group has raised money for his defense.

"The situation is worse now," Ali said in an interview. "But we cannot let this intimidate us. We must defend our civil rights."

In an attempt to smear Mekki, two U.S. government officials told AP, on condition of anonymity, that the federal government is investigating whether Mekki was plotting to use a plane as a weapon.

Omer explained that although Mekki had been a pilot in the Sudan, "after September 11, he said it would be very unpopular for a Muslim to become a pilot here. He gave up on being a pilot."

Abdul Hamed, a coworker at United Yellow Taxi, said, "Mekki was mostly interested in his family, his wife. He made less than $100 a day driving a cab. The charge that he is al Qaeda is not true."

Like many immigrants, Mekki was hoping to become a permanent U.S. resident by entering government-organized immigration lotteries. According to several co-workers, U.S. authorities charge that Mekki had entered the lottery several times, each time using a slightly different spelling of his name, to increase his chances of winning.

"Everybody has got some little detail wrong with immigration," said another taxi driver who asked to remain anonymous, referring to the bureaucratic and confusing regulations of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. "If they charged everybody like they are charging Mekki, there would be no immigrants here."

Connie Allen, Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. Senate from North Carolina, denounced the harassment. "Mekki should be released and all charges against him dropped," she said. "This is an attack aimed not just at Arab or Muslim workers in the U.S., but at intimidating any worker from opposing U.S. government actions here and around the world."  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home