Rafil A. Dhafir

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Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir is an American Iraqi born physician, who was sentenced on October 28, 2005, to 22 years in prison for violating the Iraqi sanctions by sending aid to Iraq through his charity Help the Needy.

Dr. Dhafir is believed to the only U.S. citizen ever to be held in prison for violating the sanctions on Iraq. His attorney filed a motion to dismiss as he accused the U.S. government of selective prosecuting Dhafir by singling him out because of his race, religion and cultural background.

Dhafir had been convicted, in February, of 59 charges. Dhafir had run an unregistered charity, "Help the Needy", and most of those charges were related to that charity. The 59 charges included:

not recording the $400,000 of his own money that he contributed to the fund
using a portion of the funds he collected to aid needy for his own benefit
circumventing the laws against sending funds to Iraq, without a license
defrauding Medicare

In one of his few interview from prison Dhafir told the New Standard website, "This is part of a campaign against Muslims and Arabs."

NY Civil Liberties Union claims that U.S. made "inappropriate" allegations of terrorism before sentencing doctor Rafil Dhafir to prison.

Barrie Gewanter, Executive Director of the Central New York Chapter of the [New York Civil Liberties Union], who has closely monitored the case and has publicly questioned whether Dr. Dhafir received a fair trial said:

“Dr. Dhafir created a charity called Help the Needy, whose stated intent was to provide food and medicine and other supports to people suffering from the sanctions. The government's main core charge against him was that he violated a law called IEEPA, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which is how a president imposes economic sanctions against a sanctioned country. That law says that you cannot send money to a sanctioned country, and in order to send humanitarian aid, you have to be an approved charity and have approved shipments. The testimony in the trial suggested that Dr. Dhafir did not go through those channels, because he was concerned that any material that was sent into Iraq for the Oil for Food program would end up in Saddam's pockets. And he wanted the aid to get to people who were truly needy, because he was very concerned about the suffering”.

“Each one of the five defendants was forced to testify against him, including his wife, in exchange for getting probation or a reduced – a recommendation for a reduced sentence”

Medicare fraud charge

“There were charges of money laundering, tax evasion, mail and wire fraud, but also Medicare fraud. His wife was the billing manager in his medical office. And in the course of the investigation, they found that he went overseas and started looking at his Medicare billing. And there is about a 15% difference in the Medicare billing that is very confusing, but when the doctor is out of the office, and he is an oncologist, his office provides chemotherapy. They charged 15% less if a nurse practitioner administers the chemotherapy when the doctor is not in the office and 15% more when he is in the office. And his wife was charged with conspiring with him to violate those Medicare rules”.

Selective enforcement

“We have some people from the Syracuse area that went with Voices in the Wilderness to Iraq. Those individuals and the organization Voices in the Wilderness never got criminal charges filed against them. Instead, the government imposed only fines. Our perception is that the only people that get criminal charges filed against them tend to be Muslims and Arabs. That raises questions about selective enforcement”.

Denis Halliday, former United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Iraq (1997-1998), said in regards of Dr. Dhafir’s case:

“I'm absolutely stunned by this information. I mean, it is an outrageous situation, particularly as we have just discussed the State Department breaching its own or the United Nations’ sanctions to the tune of $10 billion, allowing Saddam Hussein to export oil and import at the same time, and now we're prosecuting an American Iraqi? It's unbelievable”[1].

Following his arrest, in February 2003, both Attorney General John Ashcroft and New York State Governor Pataki characterized Dhafir as a "suspected terrorist". Prosecutors chose not to lay any charges for terrorism related crimes.

Defense attorney Devereaux Cannick, objected to a sentencing memorandum that included accusations of ties of terrorism, on the grounds that the prosecutors had not laid charges of terrorism because they suspected they did not have firm enough evidence to prove them.^[1]

His community took his defense: “Dr. Dhafir, he has been in the community for more than 20 years. He's an oncologist. He saves life. That's his job. His job is to save life here in this country. And he helps a lot of people in the community here. He gave students loans. He gave loans to people for interest-free. He never charged a penny…” [2]

As of 2007, Dr. Dhafir is in the Communications Management Unit (CMU) in Terre Haute, Indiana.