Ahmed Omar Abu Ali (Arabic: احمد عمر أبو علي; born March 1981) is an American who was convicted of providing material support to the al-Qaeda terrorist network and conspiracy to assassinate United States President George W. Bush.
His case has been the subject of criticism due to the federal government admitting evidence from alleged torture during Ali's extraordinary rendition.
Born in Houston, Texas, in March 1981 and raised in Falls Church, Virginia, Abu Ali was valedictorian of his class at the Islamic Saudi Academy high school in nearby Alexandria.
Abu Ali entered the University of Maryland in the fall of 1999 as an electrical engineering major, prayed at the Dar al-Hijrah mosque near Falls Church,[1] but withdrew in the middle of the 2000 spring semester to study Islamic theology at the Islamic University of Medina in Medina, Saudi Arabia.
[3][4] In addition, comments allegedly made by Gordon Kromberg, a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, heightened the concerns that Abu Ali had faced torture during his detention and interrogation in Saudi Arabia.
In the suit, they asked the court to issue a writ of habeas corpus to force the United States government to take action to get Abu Ali returned to the US.
Judge John D. Bates issued an order requiring partial discovery to determine if the court did, in fact, have jurisdiction.
Abu Ali said it was “very painful” and that it was the “first time I felt extreme pain.” While he was being hit on the back, people in the room kept telling him to “confess.” When the beating began, he was clad in an undershirt and long underpants.
Dr. Katz stated that, in his opinion, the marks depicted on Abu Ali's back in the photograph were not scars, but “pigment discolorations.” The judge sided with the prosecution.
Permission was denied by prison authorities on the grounds that the books contained material "potentially detrimental to national security".
[19] They conclude that: Amnesty International is seriously concerned that the trial of Ahmed Abu Ali may set a precedent in US courts of according unqualified support to the declarations of a foreign government regarding its human rights record as a means of rendering evidence admissible, including statements obtained by torture and ill-treatment.
In this case, the statements of officials from Saudi Arabia, a state with a clear record of widespread torture and ill-treatment, flatly denying that such practices existed appear to have been taken at face value with no serious attempts allowed to challenge the claims presented