25 August 2007

Free Jamal Hart Now!

The following Partisan Defense Committee letter, addressed to Warden Ronald R. Holt of Schuylkill Federal Correctional Institution in Pennsylvania, was issued on August 25. Jamal Hart has been imprisoned since 1997 on bogus firearm possession charges.

The Partisan Defense Committee reiterates our vehement protest of the severe and onerous restrictions against Jamal Hart. Mr. Hart is still being denied all non-legal personal visits and phone calls long after he was finally released from solitary confinement.

We also protest the actions of Case Manager Walter Whalen who, we have been informed, has improperly adjusted Mr. Hart’s security level to prevent him from being transferred to a lower-level security facility. We have also been informed that this Case Manager Whalen displays a poster condemning Mumia Abu-Jamal, the death row political prisoner who is Mr. Hart’s father. This is a conscious provocation.

This repression comes in the context of, and is meant to hinder, Mr. Hart’s legal efforts to file a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Hart’s petition argues that his current incarceration is based on a 1995 conviction that does not exist. By all rights, Jamal Hart should be released.

Jamal Hart is only imprisoned because he sought to highlight the case of his father, an innocent man. We demand you stop the outrageous repression of Jamal Hart now and that all his visitation and telephone rights be restored immediately!

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To correspond with Jamal Hart, send letters to: Jamal Hart, #50597-066, FCI Schuylkill, P.O. Box 759, Minersville, PA 17954-0759.