Adham Hassoun
Biography
Well known for his vocal and financial support of Islamic groups, Adham Hassoun served as an important connection to Jose Padilla. The FBI monitored conversations between the two men. Hassoun helped recruit volunteers and provided money to terrorist groups fighting in Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Somalia. He also set up an Al Qaeda front group called Benevolence International, which purportedly financed Padilla’s trip to Egypt. He was deported after serving his prison sentence.
Case characteristics: FBI confidential informant, FISA surveillance, cooperated with prosecutors. Organization referenced in charging documents: Al Qaeda.
Case data and description from The Intercept's Trial and Terror project (Trevor Aaronson and Margot Williams), licensed CC BY-NC. Source: https://github.com/theintercept/trial-and-terror-data
Judge Marcia G. Cooke’s October 20, 2006 order distinguishes Hassoun’s June 12, 2002 INS detention from his January 23, 2004 transfer into BOP criminal custody at FDC Miami. He was moved to Palm Beach County Jail general population during February–July 2004, then returned to the FDC Miami Special Housing Unit on July 15. The court denied his request for placement in general population while directing attention to counsel access and grievance receipts. These were custody and placement proceedings, not a new conviction or a release. The January 2004 indictment and February bond hearing are not new initial admissions. Source: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-flsd-1_06-cv-21633/pdf/USCOURTS-flsd-1_06-cv-21633-0.pdf#page=2
His attorney-verified March 15, 2019 habeas petition states that he physically served approximately 165 months in BOP criminal custody and received about 23 months of good-time credit against the 188-month sentence. The credit is not additional time physically imprisoned. He then remained in distinct immigration detention at Buffalo Federal Detention Facility from October 2017. The January 2, 2019 release order permitted other lawful detention grounds; the petition says he was still detained on March 15, so its planned March 1 release was not an actual discharge. These are assertions in his habeas petition, not a new criminal judgment; the independently established July 2020 removal remains the later immigration endpoint. Source: https://www.aclu.org/wp-content/uploads/legal-documents/1_-_Petition_for_Writ_of_Habeas_Corpus.pdf#page=9
Custody phase correction: The October 20, 2006 court order, pages 2–3, establishes June 12, 2002 INS detention and January 23, 2004 transfer to criminal custody, replacing the unsupported 2008 admission. The July 2020 appellate opinion establishes subsequent immigration detention. Its October 10, 2017 boundary differs from an ICE declaration's October 14, so only October precision is retained. The September 2020 opinion confirms actual removal on July 21, 2020. The 2017 criminal endpoint was a transfer, not freedom; the stayed release order was not discharge.
First-person account of the 2008 Marion custody period
Andrew Stepanian’s signed June 25, 2020 declaration states that he met Adham Hassoun after his own transfer to the Marion Communications Management Unit in early summer 2008, and that Hassoun remained there when Stepanian left for a Brooklyn halfway house in mid-December 2008. This is a fellow prisoner’s firsthand account within Hassoun’s already recorded criminal-custody phase, not a new admission or separate imprisonment. Stepanian describes Hassoun’s friendship and opposition to violence as his own observations; those character assessments are not presented as judicial findings. His June 2020 request that Hassoun be released is not an order or proof of actual release. The independently documented criminal-to-immigration transfer and July 21, 2020 removal remain unchanged.
Declaration of Andrew Stepanian, filed June 26, 2020, Hassoun v. Searls, Document 248-3: PDF page 3; PDF page 6; PDF page 7; PDF page 8; PDF page 9; PDF page 10.
The documented case chronology records custody endpoint October 10, 2017, custody-stage start October 10, 2017. The October 10, 2017 criminal-prison endpoint and immediate ICE intake are separate stage boundaries. Actual removal on July 21, 2020 is distinct from earlier stayed release orders.
Source 1 ; Source 2 ; Source 3 ; Source 4 ; Source 5 ; Source 6.
