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Terror-linked divorce now includes claim against judge
Civil rights lawsuit alleges Memphis court violated constitutional rights

A divorce trial in Memphis has spilled over into federal court, with a lawsuit against a state judge by the general counsel for a woman who alleges she wants to divorce her husband because he has "ties to terrorism" and has threatened to kill her.

The divorce trial, which started Jan. 2, is pitting Rosaline Ghawji against her husband, prominent Memphis doctor Maher Ghawji, and includes her allegations that besides his ties to terrorism, he "has threatened to kill her and her two boys if they did not abide by radical Islamic doctrine,"according to a statement from the general counsel.

The lawsuit was filed on Friday by Larry Klayman, who advises Mrs. Ghawji but is not representing her at her divorce trial, where the judge declined to allow him to fill in when another lawyer bowed out of her case just days before the trial was to start.

The lawsuit names Judge Donna Fields of Circuit Court in Shelby County for the state's 13th Judicial District, alleging the circumstances she has allowed in the case have resulted in violations of the woman's civil rights, including privacy, attorney-client privilege, due process, equal protection and free speech.

The action seeks to enjoin the Memphis court from continuing with the divorce trial, or ruling in that case, pending a decision from the federal court regarding the allegations of civil rights violations.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. district court for the Middle District of Florida in Orlando, and alleges that the state judge issued a ruling that prevented Mrs. Ghawji from pursuing any complaint against her husband, an alleged girlfriend, and a child psychologist.

Mrs. Ghawji, who earlier filed a judicial ethics complaint against the judge alleging her concerns about terrorism have been excluded from the trial improperly, has confirmed that her husband also has told her he would be glad if their two teen sons, Louis and Takek, would blow themselves up for Allah.

She's also alleged her husband has defined their sons' futures as being "good Muslims or dead."

The general counsel, Larry Klayman, indicated he would seek a temporary restraining order in the federal court that would allow the civil rights claims to be determined before the divorce case ruling is issued.

The case, being brought on behalf of the woman and her two sons, hinges on that decision, since a divorce court ruling that would give custody of the two children to the father would eliminate two of the three plaintiffs in the civil rights case, since the father then would control his sons' participation in any claims.

Klayman told WND he is seeking a ruling that would suspend any determination in the divorce case for 10 days, during which time a hearing could be scheduled on a preliminary injunction .

In her earlier ethics complaint, Mrs. Ghawji alleged the judge improperly excluded terrorism issues from the trial, and as a result of a variety of influences, including that from the FBI which she said, "has likely turned her husband into an informant," her trial lawyer was allowed to withdraw "without good cause" so that she no longer effectively can present her case.

Even though the judge's ruling to let the lawyer go came just days before the trial, she said the judge refused to delay the hearing, and told her she must go forward, even without counsel.

The ethics complaint also cited a decision by Fields to put one of Mrs. Ghawji's out-of-state lawyers on the witness stand, plucking him from the audience where he was taking notes, and ordering him to testify about attorney-client communications with Mrs. Ghawji, she alleged.

"To coerce the lawyer to testify Judge Fields threatened him with fabricated criminal charges of kidnapping based on the simple fact that the Ghawji children had not gone to school that day," a statement from the general counsel said.

Mrs. Ghawji, a Christian woman who once served as an FBI informant on her husband's alleged support of terrorism, said she wants a divorce because her husband, a self-described radical Muslim, has bragged of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the more radical groups in Islam.

Joe Kaufman, who has run an anti-terrorism organization for several years, noted that both of the Ghawji sons have, in e-mails and other communications, told friends their father was planning to take them to Syria against their will, and one noted that his grandfather has promised to beat him up when he arrived there.

She has said her husband's brother once bragged "we got them" when an explosion at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia killed 19 Americans.

She also alleges her husband had an affair with a spokeswoman working for the Islamic Society of Central Florida.

That organization, she said, tried to sponsor a fundraiser featuring Siraj Wahhaj, who is on the U.S. Attorney’s list of potential co-conspirators to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

If Mrs. Ghawji's allegations are correct, she is up against some of the most radical factions in the world today, including the adherents of blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, now serving a life sentence in the SuperMax prison in Colorado on accusations he helped in the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings in New York. She alleges she waited for many hours while her husband met at the mosque where Rahman worked.

She's also reported that on Sept. 11, 2001, a few hours before the terrorist attacks, her husband's brother send an e-mail announced some of his friends were coming to the U.S., and they should be made to feel welcome.

She also, at the FBI's instructions, for a period of time wore a wire and reported on any indications her husband was supporting terrorism, she has said.