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Supporters of Jamil Al-Amin called for moving the Muslim leader formerly known as H. Rap Brown back to Georgia instead of a federal institution in Colorado. They say the imam is kept away from his home, family and legal team for no reason and held in unusually harsh conditions. A. Akbar Muhammad, of the Nation of Islam, (left seated) participated in the rally. Photos: Erick Muhammad

ATLANTA (FinalCall.com) – – Supporters of Imam Jamil Al-Amin, who was known as outspoken leader H. Rap Brown in the heyday of the Black Power Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, recently gathered in front of the Georgia Capitol for a Day of Action.

“Our voices will demonstrate that we across the country demand that Georgia end its excessive punishment of the Imam,” said organizers. “Please join us on March 19 as we inform Georgia and the country that we call for justice for Imam Jamil,” said Mauri Saalakhan of the Peace and Justice Foundation, in a written statement.

The major demand by family, friends and supporters at the Capitol was that the state of Georgia bring the imam, or Islamic religious leader, back from the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colo., to a prison in Georgia.

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In 2002, Imam Jamil Al-Amin was found guilty of shooting and killing a Fulton County Sheriff’s deputy. “Issues surrounding the case and the imam’s conviction have always been problematic with serious questions of the imam’s guilt in the whole shooting incident, especially given a confession by another,” said his supporters. Imam Al-Amin was well-known for his leadership of a community in Atlanta that had a reputation for fighting crime and violence.

Demonstrators hold signs during support rally for Imam Jamil Al-Amin.

Questions about his convicted were compounded in 2007, when Georgia officials “suddenly moved the imam from Georgia’s Reidsville State Prison to the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado,” his supporters added. “This abrupt move, without informing the family, led to pressing questions regarding the federal government’s complicity in the case.

“Was the imam being punished because he is Muslim? Just prior to his abrupt move to Florence in 2007, Muslims in Georgia’s prisons had asked that he serve as the imam for Muslim prisoners throughout the State of Georgia. This was without the imam’s prompting but it was clearly an acknowledgement by others of the respect for him and his leadership,” said organizers of the rally.

“Is he also being punished because of his extraordinary civil rights history through the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s and his ongoing demands and activism for civil and human rights?” they asked.

Supporters also insist the imam’s case was a local, not a federal case, and say no federal charges, conviction, or sentences were handed down. “Even in spite of this, the State of Georgia chose to move him out of Georgia’s prison population to a federal prison 1,400 miles away from his family and attorneys. The conditions in the prison are extraordinarily punitive including 24-hour isolation in an underground facility with no human contact,” supporters charged.

They argue Georgia taxpayers are paying the federal government for the “punitive conditions.”

“Notwithstanding the moral considerations, paying for such punishment is un-called for,” they said.

For more information about the case visit, http://www.freeimamjamil.com.