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In the early Autumn of 1999 Ahmad Adnan Chaudhry left his native Pakistan to come to the United States. He had a bachelor's degree in engineering and wanted to pursue an MBA at California State University in San Bernardino. Like so many before him, Ahmad wanted a piece of the American dream. What he got instead was a nightmare of Kafka-esque proportions as he was forced to navigate the surrealistic landscape of the American legal system when that system targets a member of a despised minority. Herewith his story. Ahmad Chaudhry began school life in an off campus apartment with three room mates, two of whom were from Kenya and were Born Again Christians. The latter two had considerable prejudice against Muslims and taunted Ahmad about his religion. They had suffered personal loss in the 1998 bombing of the American embassy in Kenya. As an example, they asked him why Muslims could not eat pork and keep dogs as pets. The manner of the questions was intended to insult, not to acquire information. On November 30, 1999 Ahmad was heating a knife on the electric stove
to purify it in preparation for a dinner he was to cook. His room
mates had used it to prepare pork, and, according to Muslim protocol,
the knife had to be sterilized. Peter Eganza, one of the two, attacked
him from behind and forced his face down on the electric stove. Ahmad
was permanently scarred by this. An acquaintance of his saw him before
the attack and testified that the mark on his face was not present
shortly before the attack. Ahmad fought back by taking the knife and
reaching over his shoulder (his attacker was still behind him), cutting
Eganza on the cheek. In the ensuing melee Eganza was wounded in the
arm and the abdomen. None of the three wounds he received were major
and did not result in overnight hospitalization. In trying to get
away from his assailants (by this time the second room mate, Evans
Khatu, joined the fray), Ahmad fell against a glass table and shattered
it, cutting himself. Forensic evidence presented by the defense during the trial substantiated
Chaudhry's version of events. The defense brought out the prejudices
of the witnesses against Chaudhry. An expert in Sharia told the An appeal is being planned and funds are desperately needed. This is a clear case of religious prejudice and rush to judgement. It should anger all people of good conscience. Please send contributions to: CAIR Chaudhry Defense Fund, Checks should be made out
___________________ (San Bernardino, 1/1/01) -- Ahmad Adnan Chaudhry could now face life in prison for a crime of which he is innocent. In a few weeks, a judge will sentence Ahmad, who was recently found guilty by a San Bernardino, California jury on three charges, including attempted murder. In November of 1999 Ahmad was arrested after being accused of attacking his two Kenyan roommates. He had come to the United States from Pakistan in September of 1999 to pursue an MBA degree in San Bernardino. According to Ahmad, he was in the kitchen when one of the roommates began taunting him about his religious beliefs. The roommates became more aggressive in their taunting and then attacked Ahmad, pushing him against a hot stove and causing permanent burns. During the attack against him, Ahmad picked up a nearby knife and swung it behind his back in self-defense, injuring one of his attackers in the face. As he tried to escape the attack, Ahmad fell against a glass table, and was injured further. Ahmad was immediately arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated mayhem and attempted murder. His roommates were never arrested and a detailed analysis of the crime scene was never performed. The police were told by the roommates that Ahmad was a religious fanatic and likely a member of an international terrorist organization, leading the police to rush to judgment. In reality, all those who know Ahmad in Pakistan have attested to his gentle character and moderate religious practice. According to Ahmad's two attackers, whose reports of the incident are inconsistent with one another, Ahmad had attacked one of the roommates in a mad rage for insulting Islam. The prosecution argued that Ahmad had heated two knives, looked up at the ceiling in prayer, made a phone call to Pakistan and then attacked a roommate. Testimony from a burn specialist and a forensic pathologist who studied the injuries inflicted in the struggle fully confirm Ahmad's story of self-defense and demonstrated scientifically that the prosecution's version of events could not have occurred. However, despite the strong evidence in his defense, Ahmad was found guilty on all counts. In the months leading to trial, the Muslim community across North America and beyond had responded quickly to an emergency plea from Ahmad's family to raise desperately needed funds for his defense. Al-hamdu lillah the enough funds were raised to pay for the trial. Now, Ahmad's family is preparing for an appeal and is asking for the continued support and prayers of the Muslim community. To retain a capable legal team to handle post-trial motions, investigations, sentencing and appeals to challenge this harsh and unjustified verdict, the Chaudhry family will need to raise an additional $50,000 in the next month, and possibly more in the near future. CAIR urges the Muslim community to support Ahmad and pray that justice is served in his case. For more information about the case, please call CAIR at (714) 776-1847. Donations can be sent to: (Make checks payable to: "CAIR - Chaudhry Defense Fund") CAIR Chaudhry Defense
___________________ By Richard Brooks A former Cal State San Bernardino graduate student testified Monday
that he stabbed at least one of his roommates in self-defense after
the man burned him by twice pushing him against a hot stove. "I was shouting for help," Ahmad Adnan Chaudhry told the jury about
the November 1999 fight in the men's apartment on West Kendall Avenue
in San Bernardino. "There was a knife close by. I grabbed the knife
and started swinging the knife over my back . . . in any direction
I could move." The 25-year-old former business administration student, who was born and raised in Pakistan, had been at the college only 10 weeks. The fight erupted shortly after two unrelated arguments over his Muslim religion and his use of the apartment telephone, Chaudhry said. He blamed Peter Eganza for triggering the knifing. As Chaudhry told it, Eganza had cooked and eaten pork -- strictly
forbidden to Muslims -- forcing Chaudhry to cleanse two kitchen knives.
That provoked a discussion about the Muslim religion, about which
Eganza made disrespectful remarks, Chaudhry said. Chaudhry's recollection of the incident contradicts earlier testimony
given by Eganza and Evans Kahuthu, the two Kenyan men he is accused
of stabbing. Eganza suffered knife wounds to his cheek, lip, neck
and abdomen. Kahuthu suffered at least one superficial wound, apparently
when he approached the two men during the fight. Chaudhry could be sentenced to life in prison if he is convicted of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon. In an attempt to sway the jury's decision about which version to believe, defense attorney David Call presented as a character witness the district attorney of Lahore, Pakistan. "He is not a violent person," prosecutor Naeem Qureishy said of Chaudhry. "He is an honest person. He is a very law-abiding citizen." Qureishy said he has known the defendant since Chaudhry was born. "His father . . . is a judge in Pakistan," Qureishy told the jury. Chaudhry couldn't have committed the crime, Qureishy told Deputy District Attorney Michael O'Connell. O'Connell asked the Pakistani prosecutor to read to the jury a note written by an emergency-room doctor the night Chaudhry was arrested and treated for cuts on his hand. Chaudhry was "involved in admitted knife attack on roommate who `humiliated my prophet,' " wrote Dr. Eugene Kwong of Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. Chaudhry admitted cutting his own right hand with a knife and later recanted, Kwong wrote on the treatment chart. Don't believe it, Chaudhry said. As he told it, he fell against a glass table during the struggle, and it broke -- cutting his hand. A defense investigator testified he believes San Bernardino police complicated the case by performing a shoddy investigation. They failed to document the location and type of blood shed during the fight, which could have helped prove the relative positions of the participants and the sequence of events, said retired Los Angeles police Sgt. Robert Board. Chaudhry is scheduled to complete his testimony today before Superior
Court Judge W. Robert Fawke. Richard Brooks can be reached at
rbrooks@pe.com or (909) 890-4452.
Published 12/5/2000 For This Article on The Press Enterprise click
here
___________________ Pakistani Grad Student Fights to Prove Innocence. by Edina Lekovic While hate crimes legislation has become a buzz word in the presidential race due to violent actions committed against minorities, it’s hitting closer to home for one family. Ahmed Chaudhry, an international student from Pakistan, is currently embroiled in a trial in which his life is literally on the line. Chaudhry, who traveled to San Bernardino, CA to earn an MBA from California State University at San Bernardino, is being accused of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and intent to commit mayhem after defending himself from physical attacks launched by two roommates. Chaudhry shared an apartment with three other men, two of whom were also international students. While they were not friends, the roommates got along amicably. Held in prison on bail since Nov. 30, 1999, Chaudhry is now preparing to go on trial and desperately seeking the assistance of the Muslim community. Chaudhry’s ex-roommates, two international students from Kenya, charge that he attacked them because they insulted Prophet Muhammad and that he was waging a personal jihad (armed struggle) against them because they were non-Muslim. They point to wounds they received that evening as evidence to their claims. However, Chaudhry tells a different story one, his lawyer says, the evidence clearly supports. David Call, an attorney of 32 years, accepted Chaudhry’s case when he realized that Chaudhry was being unfairly targeted because of his race and religious beliefs. “I got curious because I began to study Islam,” Call explains. “I was surprised why there’s so much fuss over believing in the same God we all do. The evidence in this case seems to be that these people have an image of Islam and Muslims that is perpetrated by the public which are just flat wrong.” The prosecutor, District Attorney Michael O’Connell, who is supporting the claims made by Chaudhry’s roommates, will try to show that he was compelled by his religious beliefs to inflict harm on his non-Muslim roommates. But Call says the testimony of the two roommates, Peter Aganza and Evans Kahutu, is not only inconsistent but unconceivable considering the nature of the wounds. The dispute which led to the attack began when Chaudhry entered the kitchen and found Kahutu cooking pork. Kahutu offered some to Chaudhry, who explained that Muslims don’t eat pork because they believe it is unclean and bad for one’s health. According to Chaudhry, Aganza responded by saying, “What you eat is clean and what we eat is unclean?” Meanwhile, Kahutu began repeatedly jabbing his plating towards Chaudhry’s chest saying “Eat, eat, eat.” During the ensuing conversation, Aganza made a defamatory comment about Prophet Muhammad, a fact which the prosecutor will claim incited Chaudhry’s response. However, Chaudhry says he answered by saying, “You shouldn’t say that about someone’s religion.” After Aganza and Kahutu used their experiences during the embassy bombing in Kenya to explain their outrage against Muslims, the fourth roommate, David Wei, arrived home and changed the subject in order to diffuse the situation. Kahutu and Aganza left the kitchen and Chaudhry continued to prepare his meal. Continuing to prepare his chicken, Chaudhry turned on the stove in order to heat and cleanse the knife over the flame. Leaving the stove on to heat, he went to make a phone call. When Aganza received a call, Chaudhry returned to the kitchen and found that the plastic on his knife was burnt. He picked up the other knife, quickly heated it, cleaned it and set it aside to be used on his chicken. When Kahutu walked by demanding to know what he was doing, Chaudhry explained that he was cleaning the knife, at which point Aganza stormed in, upset that Chaudhry had taken so long on the phone since he was waiting for a call. After Chaudhry apologized, Kahutu returned to the kitchen and said you Muslims are so stubborn. Confused, Chaudhry tried to leave the kitchen as he had in similar situations. Aganza said you disrespected me and then hit Chaudhry on the back of the head and grabbed his hair and pushed him toward the stove, burning his face. Trying to protect his eyes, the stove’s flames instead burned his hand. According to Chaudhry, Aganza seemed to be doing all the burning while Kahutu punched him in the ribs. The prosecutor’s case will claim that Chaudhry “was seeking his own private punishment for someone who had spoken poorly about and blasphemed the Prophet Muhammad,” Call said, explaining that this theory is based on statements made by the Aganza and Kahutu. While calling for Wei’s help, Chaudhry waved the knife behind him in 4-5 directions without seeing what he was hitting. This is what the majority of the trial will focus on – the nature of the wounds received and inflicted by the three men. “The evidence will illustrate that Aganza attacked the defendant,” says Call. “While he was being burnt on the stove, he defended himself with a knife that was laying by. The (prosecutor) claims that he was heating the knives in order to attack them, but he was doing this to cleanse them from the pork that someone had used them on.” After they attacked him, Aganza and Kahutu left the apartment and called the police, charging Chaudhry had attacked them. When the police arrived, they asked few questions of Chaudhry and told him he should talk to his lawyer. Call is confident that he can prove Chaudhry’s innocence given adequate expert testimony. However, Chaudhry’s family is unable to pay the entire sum of the nearly $25,000 in fees related to launching a solid defense case. Jury selection will begin Nov. 20, with the trial
expected to begin after Thanksgiving. Chaudhry needs the help of justice
seekers. Chaudhry’s brother Imran can be reached at (909) 268-6325. Islamic Center of Inland Empire Please forward this message and send it to as many
people as you know, and Special Note from CAIR: FOR MORE INFORMATION:
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Please do what you can. For financial assistance, if we just provide a very minimal amout, like say $10, it will go a long way for his cause. Please take time to do what you can. Don't pass this opportunity to generate blessings from Allah!
Ahmad Adnan Chaudrhry, an innocent 22 year old man, is now at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cuchamunga. He has been there all this year and for over a month last year. If convicted he faces 25 years in the prison of a land foreign to him. Most if not all of you did not know him before this, since he had only come from Pakistan as an MBA student weeks before the incident that led to his arrest. If you want to be up to speed on his case, I have included a fact sheet placed at the bottom of this message. Essentially he got the wrong set of roommates and was a victim of bias against Islam throughout the process. His conviction depends on the State's use of stereotypes to get a conviction; he is unlikely to get a fair trial.
I think this case has been met by a shocking lack of interest by the Muslim community. I first became aware of the problem over a month ago from Faisal and visited Ahmad and his brother (who came from Pakistan to see through the matter)- I also met with his attorney. Those Muslims I spoke to individually have been able to do little to aid the brother, few have been able to take the time to visit Ahmad at all, I can not believe how many times I have been stonewalled on this. One of the few who did visit was a Hindu from the India Post who thought an injustice was taking place and did a write-up for their current issue. I urge all of you to visit him, to make dua for him and for you to ask him to make dua, to comfort him and to make him believe people out there actually care about justice- no matter how remote it may seem from their own daily lives. I do not know what it is like to be incarcerated for so long for a crime not committed in a land so far away from my home, I don't think many of us do. If you cannot visit him or contribute to his legal defense, or show up at his July 28 pre-trial or his August trial, I hope you could make dua for him and his freedom from oppression. Facts About the Case: 1. Ahmad Adnan Chaudrhry was a recently admitted international student only in his second month into working on his MBA at the California State University, San Bernadino at the time of the incident. 2. Ahmad had no relatives or friends in Southern California, which is common for international students. Through his short stay in the United States he had little contact with the Muslim Community. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and was 21 years old at the time. 3. Ahmad decided to room with non-Muslim international students and it quickly became apparent they had an animus towards Islam and Muslims, and continually harassed him because of his religion. 4. On the date of the incident, Ahmad was preparing dinner for himself while his roommates were eating undercooked pork. An argument about pork and Islam ensued where Ahmad's roommates made derogatory comments about Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad. During the course of this argument his roommates physically attacked him and forced him towards a burning stove, burning him in several places on his body while he shouted for help. Ahmad, who was washing a knife used in the preparation of his roommate's pork meal just before the attack, started waiving if during the attack in his defense. One of his roommates was injured. 5. Police arrived after Ahmad's roommates called. Only Ahmad was arrested after his roommates convinced the police Ahmad was a religious fanatic who made a premeditated attempt to murder them. 6. The police quickly arrested and booked Ahmad. His attackers were never arrested or charged and remain free today. 7. To secure Ahmad's conviction, the prosecutor has produced the theory that after several arguments with his roommates, an Imam issued a fatwa and had asked Ahmad to settle matters by doing jihad and killing his roommates. 8. More recently, the prosecutor has suggested using the @#%$pit recording tape of EgyptAir flight 990, which crashed into the Atlantic last year and where the pilot stated he put his trust in Allah. 9. The State can only maintain this case if the prosecutor makes liberal use of ethnic and religious stereotypes that could inflame the jury into convicting Ahmad. 10. Ahmad Chaudry is now an inmate at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamunga, California. He is held on $500,000 bail and charged with Aggravated Mayhem and Attempted Murder, both felonies. He faces 25 years in prison if convicted.
___________________ By Richard Brooks Ten weeks after he arrived in the United States last September, Pakistani immigrant Ahmad Adnan Chaudhry found himself defending his religion -- and being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Chaudhry already had a mechanical engineering degree from his homeland and was seeking a master's degree in business at Cal State San Bernardino. He comes from a prestigious family: His father is a judge in the provincial court in Punjab, his mother is a retired university professor, one brother is a Pakistani Army captain and the other is a heart surgeon. Raised as a Muslim, Chaudhry doesn't eat pork. And that, his family says, is why he's behind bars, awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and assault with a deadly weapon. "His roommates were eating pork," said Dr. Imran Chaudhry, one of his brothers, on Friday. "They forced him to eat pork. "They had an argument. One of them became aggressive and started pushing my brother on the stove. And they burned him. So he reacted." To Chaudhry's family, it was a clear case of self-defense. Some of his supporters fear it also is a clear example of religious intolerance. In the prosecutor's view, Chaudhry, 25, was the aggressor and there is no evidence of self-defense. "Our side is: They're having a discussion over religion and somehow the defendant takes offense to it, thinking they're making fun of him being a Muslim and not eating pork," said Deputy District Attorney Michael O'Connell. About 20 minutes passed between the dispute and the attack, investigators
believe. "The other people in the apartment see him heating up two steak knives
and see him . . . praying. The victim says the next thing he knows,
the defendant is on him, burning him with knives, slashing his face
and stabbing him in the abdomen," O'Connell said. Chaudhry never mentioned self-defense to police, O'Connell said.
Although he made no attempt to flee, he told investigators little
about the incident, O'Connell said. Investigators first learned of the self-defense claim after a doctor
examined pictures taken two weeks after the Nov. 30 arrest and said
Chaudhry had burn scars on his body. If convicted as charged, Chaudhry could be imprisoned for life. Two of his San Bernardino roommates -- both Kenyans -- were injured. Peter Eganza allegedly suffered knife wounds to his cheek, lip, neck and stomach. He escaped, but fell on a glass table, suffering additional cuts on his back and knees. Evans Kahuthu suffered a cut hand and arm, court transcripts show. A third roommate -- a Chinese man -- wasn't hurt. At a preliminary court hearing, Eganza said he was knifed without
provocation and he denied that he taunted Chaudhry about his religion.
Kahuthu said he made remarks about religion that seemed to irritate
Chaudhry. Chaudhry is being held at West Valley Detention Center. Bail was set at $500,000. On Friday, Judge W. Robert Fawke tentatively scheduled the trial for Sept. 8. The brief hearing was attended by about 30 people -- mostly Pakistanis -- from Los Angeles and Orange counties and the Inland area. Among them was a writer for the India Post, a San Francisco-based weekly newspaper. "Personally, I believe this boy is innocent and is the victim of a hate crime," said reporter J.S. Bedi. Others have tried to figure out what happened that night and have discussed how the trouble may have resulted from religious insensitivity or misunderstanding. "In Islam, you cannot eat pork. You cannot touch pork. It is one of the major sins," said M. Afal Mir, a former political analyst for the U.S. State Department in Pakistan. "In the Muslim world, one of the major insults you can give to somebody is to call him a pig. That's the ultimate insult." And when pork is cooked, he said, the only acceptable method of cleansing
the utensils is by fire. That's why Chaudhry was holding the knives
over a flame, Mir said. "And if somebody is intentionally trying to insult the Prophet, it becomes a very emotional issue for a Muslim." Though they disagree on what happened in the apartment that night, lawyers on both sides insist that the central legal issue is whether Chaudhry was the aggressor or the victim. "This is not a matter of religion," defense attorney David Call said. "It's a matter of self-defense." The prosecutor said he is trying to keep the focus on the victims
-- not culture or religion. "I don't know of any legal defense in the United States that allows a person to do that: slice them up like that," said O'Connell. "They're trying to bring in his religious background as justification for him to do this to somebody." Richard Brooks can be reached at:
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