Biography
Tarek Mehanna is a pharmacist raised in Sudbury, Massachusetts, who translated and posted documents associated with al-Qaeda and jihad. He was arrested in 2009 and sentenced to 17 years in federal prison on terrorism-related charges. Mehanna's lawyers argued that his actions were protected under the First Amendment. The ACLU stated that "Under the government's theory of the case, ordinary people--including writers and journalists, academic researchers, translators, and even ordinary web surfers--could be prosecuted for researching or translating controversial and unpopular ideas."
Before his sentence was determined, Mehanna made a statement that was transcribed and circulated in many spaces online, saying "America has historically supported the most unjust policies against its minorities – practices that were even protected by the law – only to look back later and ask: what were we thinking? Slavery, Jim Crow, the internment of the Japanese during World War II – each was widely accepted by American society, each was defended by the Supreme Court...everything is subjective - even this whole business of terrorism and who is a terrorist. It all depends on the time and place and who the superpower happens to be at the moment."
Mehanna is shown on the Bureau of Prison's website as no longer in custody as of August 20th, 2024.
The November 5, 2009 superseding indictment’s signed detention cover sheet records Mehanna’s actual arrest on October 21, 2009 and marks him already in federal pretrial custody. Six of its ten counts apply to Mehanna; the remaining counts concern co-defendant Ahmad Abousamra, whom the separate cover sheet describes as in Syria and not in custody. The indictment states allegations and does not establish the later verdict or sentence. Its original cover sheet corrects the former October 20 arrest entry. Source: https://www.investigativeproject.org/case_docs/us-v-mehanna/1121/superseding-indictment.pdf#page=32
