Ashland, USA - An Oregon-based Islamic charity that is fighting the federal government over a warrantless eavesdropping program filed another lawsuit Thursday seeking the return of 155 cartons of religious pamphlets seized two years ago by U.S. Treasury officials.
The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, based in Ashland, claims that the government's refusal to release the documents and allow their dissemination violates the charity's First Amendment rights.
In February 2004, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control seized the assets of Al-Haramain pending an investigation into whether the charity was involved in terrorism.
In September 2004, Treasury officials designated Al-Haramain a global terrorist organization, alleging it sent money to Islamic fighters in Chechnya. Al-Haramain officials have denied any wrongdoing and say the charity simply operated a prayer house and distributed Islamic literature to prisoners.
As part of the asset seizure, treasury officials removed thousands of volumes of religious literature from the group's Ashland office, "including Qur'ans, written commentary on the life of the Prophet Muhammad, and other materials designed to explain Islam to both adherents and non-adherents," the suit said.
Al-Haramain representatives have repeatedly requested the return of the literature in order to protect it from damage and distributing it to people who want it, the suit said. At least initially, the literature was stored in an unheated, unlit room, which could have damaged it.
"Such deterioration is considered an offense against adherents to the religion," the suit said.
Molly Millerwise, director of public affairs for the U.S. Treasury, said agency officials do not comment on lawsuits.
After the Treasury designation, a federal grand jury in Oregon indicted Al-Haramain and two officers, Soliman al-Buthe and Pete Seda, on tax charges in February 2005.
Al-Buthe and Seda, who both deny wrongdoing as well as any connection to terrorism, are considered "international fugitives" by prosecutors. The government dropped the charges against Al-Haramain last September, saying it was a functionless shell, but the case could be resurrected.
A separate lawsuit filed earlier this year accuses the government of illegally eavesdropping on phone calls between Al-Buthe and two U.S. Al-Haramain lawyers in 2004.