July 12, 2005 – A humanitarian group that facilitated activists’ travel to Iraq for years before and after the start of the 2003 US-led invasion of that country is challenging the federal government’s right to assess financial penalties against members for violating a ban on travel and economic trade.
In oral arguments before a District Court Judge in Washington, DC last Tuesday, an attorney for Voices in the Wilderness (VITW) questioned a Treasury Department order against the organization and noted that the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Treasury body responsible for enforcing economic sanction rules, took three years to seek payment after first issuing a penalty notice in 1998.
According to court papers from a 2004 ruling by District Court Judge John D. Bates, the Office failed to respond to a December 1998 VITW challenge to the penalty ruling until after members of the group participated in anti-war protests in Baghdad and Washington in 2002.
The judge ruled against the group in that case but a new round of papers filed by Voices attorney William Quigley asks the government to provide documents related to the case. In a statement released following last week’s hearing before Judge Bates, Quigley said he expects the judge to decide whether to compel the government to release related papers within the next few weeks.
In statements, court papers and arguments, Voices activists and their legal representatives allege that the Office of Foreign Assets Control has done nothing to prosecute numerous companies for breaking the embargo. Additionally, the group continued to argue that the sanctions do not apply to them because they were engaged in humanitarian acts, an argument the judge rejected last year.
