Woman seeks feds' protection from judge

[Soldier4Christ]

Woman seeks feds' protection from judge
Divorce case links husband to threats against sons, terror groups

A new federal court filing in Tennessee is asking for protection for a woman seeking a divorce from her husband because of his ties to terrorism, and names as a defendant a divorce court judge who imposed a "house arrest" on the woman.

The case, as WND has reported, involves Rosine Ghawji, a Christian woman who reports her husband has boasted of being a radical Islamic and has stated that her husband, Maher Ghawji, has defined the future for their two sons, ages 14 and 18, as being "good Muslims or dead."

The federal civil rights action alleges violations of the First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendments by the judge in the divorce dispute, Donna Fields, of the Circuit Court of Tennessee for the 30th Judicial District in Memphis.

Mary M. Bers, senior counsel with the Office of the Attorney General, was appointed to defend the judge but declined to return a call from WND seeking comment. A spokeswoman for the office did call, but could not elaborate on the case.

But a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee by Larry Klayman, a general counsel who has advised Mrs. Ghawji although he has not handled her divorce case, seeks a preliminary injunction from the federal court to prevent the state judge from acting.

Specifically the request seeks an order preventing Fields from continuing the proceedings in the divorce dispute, stopping her from taking any action or enforcing any order in that case, and an order that the state judge not prevent the filing of any legal action against the husband, his alleged mistress and a psychologist.

The need is urgent, the filings state, because "if this Court declines to grant the PLAINTIFFS' Motion for Preliminary Injunction, the DEFENDANT, in light of the DEFENDANT's prejudice and prejudgment of the case will very likely enter judgment in the Divorce Case awarding child custody to the Husband, thereby subjecting the PLAINTIFFS to possible harm, bodily injury, death and/or terror."

The court filings also note that the wife, who followed the state judge's "house arrest" order, shortly after she returned to the family residence in Memphis under the court order, was additionally victimized by her husband, who "on the pretext of the Order … broke into Rosine's home, of which she has exclusive possession."

The lawyer who filed the document said based on the husband's prior threats on the lives of his wife and sons, she was in fear for her life during the confrontation which came because the state judge ordered Mrs. Ghawji to return to the family residence and not leave the county.

Court documents outline the evidence of terror links in the case:

    * Mrs. Ghawji, at the FBI's instructions, for a period of time wore a wire and reported on any indications her husband was supporting terrorism.

    * Mrs. Ghawji said her husband has boasted of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most radical organizations of Islam.

    * Joe Kaufman, who has run an anti-terrorism organization for 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.

    * The husband's brothers, Haitham, is "set forth in the U.S government's evidentiary proffer for convicted terrorist Enaam Arnaout," a former director of the Benevolence International Foundation, a group whose core mission reportedly is to help Al-Qaida.

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

    * Mrs. Ghawji has said her husband had an affair with a spokeswoman for the Islamic Society of Central Florida, a group that 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.

    * Mrs. Ghawji also has reported she spent hours waiting for her husband while he was in meetings at a mosque occupied by 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'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.

"Notwithstanding the Defendant's retaliatory unlawful threats and intimidation and abuse of court process as set forth in the Order, the Order is also tantamount to 'house arrest' to Rosine and unequivocally continues the egregious and outrageous pattern of willful and unlawful conduct which is stripping the Plaintiffs of nearly every fundamental constitutional right to which they are entitled," the request for a preliminary injunction continues.

"In the instant case, under a guise of a travel restriction … particularly on Rosine, the Defendant has imposed a restriction on Plaintiffs' constitutional rights to travel, migrate, move, associate and speak under the Fourth, Fourteenth and First Amendments to the U.S. Constitution," the filing continued.

"Such a restriction bears no legitimate relationship to the Divorce Case and is clearly an act of retaliation in furtherance of Defendant's campaign of unconstitutional bias and prejudice against the Plaintiffs."

"Lastly, on Jan. 23, 2007, Rosine observed unmarked government cars stationed in front of her home in yet another act of apparent retaliation and intimidation," the filing said.

The civil rights case earlier had been filed in Florida, where Klayman has advised Mrs. Ghawji on other matters, but Tennessee court officials said it was dismissed there on the move to the Tennessee federal court.

That original complaint explained how Maher Ghawji had repeatedly told his sons "he would be proud if they blew themselves up for 'Allah' as such action would constitute a glorification of their lives."

The husband also threatened to assassinate his wife if she opposed his desire to train his sons as radical Muslim extremists and told his wife for as little as $1,000, he would "hire a 'hitman' in Memphis' black community to kill her," court filings show.

The threats included one incident in a Value City department store in Memphis, when the husband took a sword displayed for sale and was, "pressing it against Rosine's neck, simulating slashing her throat, and telling her 'that's what [he] would like to do with that sword,'" the document reveals.

The husband's brother, also, one time wrote to Maher Ghawji that his children: "should get up in the morning with the religion, and he shouldn't stop following it. … I find here that the child does not listen to what you tell him. Come and pray. My words are strong, and you need to keep the Quran and look forward to the jihad!"

The case alleges the state judge during court hearings "stated that she did not believe that Rosine had been truthful," then sealed court records when the wife presented proof of her claims. "The Defendant then warned Rosine that if she ever disclosed the contents of the affidavits to [her sons] that she would be thrown in jail."

The case also alleges the state judge held meetings with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Upon information and belief, after having thoroughly reviewed and confirmed Rosine's allegations about Husband's ties with terrorism, the FBI coerced Husband to work for the FBI as an informant," the filing says.

The state judge also rejected Klayman's request to represent Mrs. Ghawji in her divorce case, even though the judge had ordered the wife's previous lawyer off the case just days before the divorce trial was to begin, and then refused to delay it.

Fields also ordered a lawyer, who had been hired to take notes at the divorce proceedings and was sitting in the audience, to the stand to answer questions about his attorney-client relationship with Mrs. Ghawji, the case claims.

The court filings also note that the return-to-Memphis order came after the husband complained to the court that his sons were in the home with a caretaker, who didn't speak English. Mrs. Ghawji has confirmed that the caretaker and teen-age boys all are fluent in French.

Mrs. Ghawji earlier had filed a judicial ethics complaint against the judge over the issues.