Boston Phoenix Gives Carmen Ortiz 15th Annual Muzzle Award

"In a year marked by numerous instances of oppression and repression, the disturbing case of Tarek Mehanna leads the list. Last year the 29-year-old Sudbury (MA) pharmacist was convicted of federal terrorism charges — not because of what he did, but because of what he said, wrote, and translated. In April, he was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison.

Thus our top Muzzle goes to US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, whose office ran roughshod over Mehanna's constitutional rights … "

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The Real Criminals in the Tarek Mehanna Case

"In one of the most egregious violations of the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech seen in quite some time, Tarek Mehanna, an American Muslim, was convicted this week in a federal court in Boston and then sentenced yesterday to 17 years in prison. […] At some point in the future, I believe history will be quite clear about who the actual criminals are in this case: not Mehanna, but rather the architects of the policies he felt compelled to battle and the entities that have conspired to consign him to a cage for two decades."

Read the full article by Glenn Greenwald.