Judge Says Doctor Can’t Treat Terrorists

A judge has ruled that a Florida doctor can be prosecuted under federal law for vowing to treat members of al-Qaida. Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir argued unsuccessfully that the Constitution protects a doctor’s right to perform medical services.

AP via Houston Chronicle:

A doctor accused of pledging to treat al-Qaida members can be prosecuted because medical care counts as material support to terrorists under federal law, a judge said Tuesday.

Dr. Rafiq Abdus Sabir, an Ivy League-educated doctor, had argued it was unconstitutional to prosecute a doctor for providing medical services.

He was arrested in May 2005 at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., accused in a plot to assist terrorist organizations along with a New York jazz musician, a Brooklyn bookstore owner and a former Washington, D.C., cabdriver. Sabir has pleaded not guilty and remained jailed since his arrest.

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law.fordham.edu

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska