Biography
Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir was an American Iraqi-born physician, who founded the charity Help the Needy, to respond to the humanitarian crisis created by the Gulf War and US Sanctions on Iraq. After 9/11 the U.S government began surveilling Dhafir, intercepting his mail, email, faxes and telephone calls; bugging his office and hotel rooms; going through his trash and physically following him. Despite no evidence he was connected to terrorism Attorney General John Ashcroft and Governor Pataki publicly referred to Dhafir as a "suspected terrorist," Dhafir was arrested for violating sanctions over the humanitarian work his charity performed in Iraq. After Dhafir refused to accept a plea agreement, the prosecutor added 45 additional charges ranging from money laundering for collecting donations for the charity to Medicare fraud due to the fact he was sometimes not present in the room when patients were treated by other licensed medical technicians. During the trial the prosecution continuously hinted that Dhafir had connections to terrorism, a false assertion that the Judge refused to allow the defense to rebuke. Dhafir was convicted on all counts and sentenced to 22 years in prison. Sentenced to 22 years federal prison; served at FCI Terre Haute, Indiana; released April 26, 2022.
Dr. Rafil Dhafir, an Iraqi-American oncologist near Syracuse, ran the charity Help the Needy, which sent food and medicine to Iraqis suffering under sanctions. Arrested in 2003 and publicly branded a "suspected terrorist" by officials (a charge never brought), he was convicted of sanctions-violation, fraud, and tax offenses and sentenced to 22 years. He was released in 2020.
