[NEW YORK, NY] Activists will gather for a second candlelight vigil on Monday, March 10 at 6PM outside the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in lower Manhattan [150 Park Row and Pearl St]. These monthly vigils are organized by a critical new campaign titled No Separate Justice (NSJ). Monday’s vigil focuses on the unjust prosecution and imprisonment of Tarek Mehanna. Launched on January 7th, 2014 NSJ aims to expose and to work towards ending patterns of human rights and civil liberties abuses created by the Department of Justice under the auspices of the US’s “War on Terror.”
NSJ vigils are held on the first Monday night of every month outside the MCC., a federal penitentiary where people accused of terrorism-related offenses are held for years in solitary confinement, even before they have been tried.These inhumane conditions are not unique to the MCC. In an effort to shine a light on and end the pattern of human rights and civil liberties abuses happening in “War on Terror” cases, the No Separate Justice Campaign brings together community groups, academics, family members and human rights and civil liberties organizations including Amnesty International USA, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Council On American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)-New York, and Educators for Civil Liberties.
Each month, NSJ vigils will spotlight an individual case to reveal a pattern of abuses happening by federal courts and prisons in these terrorism cases. The March 10th vigil will focus on the case of Tarek Mehanna, whose “material support” charges (which included the translation of texts from Arabic into English) raised grave concerns from civil liberties groups and academics across the country. After being held for two years in pre-trial solitary confinement, Tarek Mehanna is now serving his 17-and-a-half year sentence in the “Communications Management Unit” in Marion, Illinois.
Please bring a flashlight or candle with you as we will be shining a light together to expose the human rights abuses happening at MCC, the federal government’s domestic torture site in New York City, and across our country in these cases. To learn more about NSJ campaigns visit http://no-separate-justice.org. You can RSVP for Monday’s vigil via Facebook HERE.