Above, supporters of Maher Hawash protest April 7 outside federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, to demand his immediate release. Hawash, 38, a Palestinian-American and U.S. citizen, was arrested March 20 by federal agents. Washington continues to imprison him without charges. The government claims he is a material witness in a secret "terrorism" case against six people accused of "conspiring" to join the Taliban and Al Qaeda to fight U.S. forces occupying Afghanistan.

In the last two years, more than two dozen people have been detained and held indefinitely on similar grounds, including several U.S. citizens. Washington refuses to give any information. If the government believes Hawash has committed a crime, it should indict him so he can have an open and public hearing, Hawash’s supporters say. "Then we can defend him, or accept that he had done something wrong," said Zaha Hassan, a Palestinian-American lawyer. "If this could happen to him, it could happen to all of us."

Osama Awadallah, a Jordanian student who was detained as a material witness shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, was subsequently charged with perjury after denying he knew the names of any of the hijackers in the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center. Last year, a federal judge threw out the indictment, saying the government’s use of the material witness statute was "illegitimate."  
 
 
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