Jamaat al-Muslimeen Press Release:
(From our Community Service Department)
In Prison on Murder Charge, She Prays to Allah for Help
17 Year Old Muslimah Killed 60 Year old Rapist
A sister from Atlantic City area (New Jersey) who supports Jamaat
al-Muslimeen has been visiting women in prison. She found there 18 year old
Hala Gabr of Yemeni origin (U.S. citizen by birth) who is being held on
$500,000 bail on murder charges. On looking more into the case, our
sister talked to Hala and to the Muslim sister who leads the prayers in the
prison. Then she looked at the court proceedings as published in the local
paper (The Press of Atlantic City).
Gradually she realized that a great wrong is being done to Hala Gabr.
No non-Muslim rape victim would be treated the way Hala is being treated. The
facts of the case from the defense point of view are as follows:
1. Hala was 17 (just 3 weeks short of 18) when her foster mother took
her to Atlantic City. The foster mother went to a casino, leaving Hala to see
the sights. After a while, Hala hailed a cab to go back to the foster mother.
The cabbie offered her $20 to have sex with her. When she refused, he pulled
a knife on her, forced her to go to her motel room and raped her violently.
(Medical records show that she was sexually violated.)
2. At some point during the violation, she hit him with a beer bottle.
When he went down, she grabbed a knife and stabbed him 13 times.
3. She hid the body in the bed under the mattress, cleaned up
the room, drove off in his car and threw all his belongings in a nearby
stream. (These have been found thus negating the prosecution claim that she was
stealing his things.)
4. She did not drive properly and had an accident. She was
taken unconscious to hospital. She revived and fled to her father's house in
Brooklyn (from where she had originally escaped owing to abuse and thus
been put in a foster home.)
5. The police found her purse in the car and traced her to her
father's house where she was arrested.
IMPORTANT NOTES: She does not have any criminal record of any kind.
She had no motive to kill the man. The rapist, authorities say,
frequently picked up prostitutes and was known as a sexual predator in the
Atlantic City area.
Because of her age at the time of the murder, she cannot get the death
sentence but she could get life without parole for 50 years.
Our sister has steadily tried to live her life as a Muslim. She needs
your support. Please write letters of support to this address: (Note her name
in the legal records is HAILA.) She needs your du'as. Let her know, the
ummah is there for her.
Haila Gabr, Atlantic City Correctional Center
5060 Atlantic Avenue, Mays Landing, N.J. 08330
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Distributed by Jamaat al-Muslimeen, P.O. Box 10881, Baltimore, MD 21234
Jamaat al-Muslimeen is the voice of the oppressed people of America
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2000-06-15 Fri 07:06ct