Terrorist Khalfan Khamis Mohamed Sues Colorado Super-Max Over Prison’s Restrictions

DENVER – A man convicted of a 1998 terrorist strike on the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania has won the right to sue the federal government over tight restrictions on his visitors and letter-writing at the federal Supermax prison in southern Colorado.

Khalfan Khamis Mohammed, serving a life sentence at the high-security prison, says the restrictions violate his civil rights.

In a handwritten filing in 2008 in Denver District Court, Mohammed said the special administrative measures that allow restrictions on federal prisoners were “in violation of the First Amendment rights, equal protection rights, cruel and unusual punishment.”

Charging authority	United States
	In connection with	East African Embassy Bombings
	Charges issued	Dec. 16, 1998
	Case status	Convicted
	Convictions	All charges
	Sentence	Life imprisonment1,2
	Case resolved	May 29, 2001
	Narrative and Notes (Reliable)	Has a twin sister. Moved with family to Dar es Salaam around 1990. Trained in explosives in Afghanistan in 1994. Returned home to Dar Es Salaam in 1995. Traveled to Mombasa, Kenya and twice to Somalia in 1997. Traveled to Mombasa again in 1998. Joined embassy bombings plot in March or April 1998. Rented house in Dar Es Salaam used as base of operations for embassy bombings. Helped grind the TNT and prepare the bomb used in Tanzania bombing. Purchsed a white Suzuki Samurai used by conspirators. Drove the truck partway to Dar Es Salaam embassy. He fled to South Africa and worked as a cook at a fast-food restaurant, Burger World, under an assumed name, until South African police detained him. He was turned over to the United States. Tried to reach al-Qaeda in June 1999 but didn’t not hear back. After he was captured, he assisted Mamdouh Salim in a jail uprising in New York in 2000. During trial, his attorney portrayed him as a simple gofer and a pawn. After his conviction, a South African court ruled his extradition to the United States was illegal on the grounds he faced the death penalty.1,3,4,5

Representing himself, Mohammed also complained that he was barred from watching religious programming on Arabic television, even though Christian prisoners had access to their spiritual leaders.

In her ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger said the federal government failed to show that the people with whom Mohammed wants to communicate pose a threat to the security of the prison or the public.

The judge rejected other complaints, ruling Mohammed could not prove he has been deprived of adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care or safety.

The federal government argued it is monitoring 20 inmates and has limited resources because many of the communications need to be translated, a claim the judge rejected.

“Simply because there is insufficient manpower to screen all mail coming into a prison does not entitle the prison to select particular inmates who cannot receive mail, or to limit the people with whom the inmates may communicate,” Krieger noted.

Federal prosecutors said Mohammed remains a danger to the community because he played a crucial role in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy that killed or injured nearly 100 people.

“When it was over, [Mohammed] expressed his regret that more Americans had not died,” prosecutors told the court.more