Father: Its Sign Of Unhappiness
TAMPA — One of the two University of South Florida students recently indicted on federal explosives charges has refused to wear his jail identification wristband and is being denied privileges until he cooperates, jail officials say.
Ahmed Mohamed hasn’t been acting up, but he has refused to wear the bracelet that inmates are required to wear, Lt. Chris Allen said.
Officials aren’t sure why he took it off, but until he puts it on Mohamed will not be allowed to receive any privileges, such as seeing personal visitors or buying items from the jail canteen store, Allen said.
Abdellatif Mohamed, vice chairman of the National Authority for Tunnels in Egypt, said he will complain about his son’s treatment to the Egyptian government.
“I am going to contact the Egyptian embassy to look into the situation,” he said.
The elder Mohamed also said that today the embassy will announce which lawyer it hired to represent his son.
His son’s refusal to wear the wristband is a sign of his unhappiness, he said.
“If you are in jail, you will be angry,” he said in a telephone conversation from Cairo. “He is in a small room, he is unhappy. Of course, anyone would be unhappy.”
Abdellatif Mohamed has not spoken to his son in two weeks and will not be able to until Ahmed dons the wristband, according to jail officials.
If he could speak to him, the father said he has a message.
“I would tell him to wear it, because it is nothing,” he said. “He is refusing to wear it because he is not a criminal.”
Ahmed Mohamed, 26, is in solitary confinement at Orient Road Jail. He and Youssef Megahed, 21, both of them students at USF, were arrested last month in South Carolina after, authorities say, explosives were found in the trunk of their car. They had been stopped for speeding.
Mohamed’s attorney in South Carolina, Lyle Lofton, said he planned to come to Tampa today to visit his client and to meet wit the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case. Lofton said he will represent Mohamed at Friday’s bail hearing, making a limited appearance for the purpose of that hearing.
In federal court, attorneys who notify the court that they are representing a particular defendant usually have a difficult time getting out of the case, even if the defendant is not paying for their services. So it’s not unusual for an attorney, with permission from a judge, to enter what is known as a limited appearance until financial arrangements are finalized. That enables the lawyer to represent the defendant temporarily without committing to staying until the case is resolved.
Lofton, who was hired by the Egyptian embassy to represent Mohamed in South Carolina, said the embassy still has not decided whether to retain him for the federal case or if it will hire a local lawyer instead.
Lofton didn’t know anything about problems Mohamed is having in the jail.
“I’ve had absolutely no communication with him since he left [South Carolina on] Thursday,” Lofton said.
By Howard Altman and Mike Wells. Reporter Elain Silvestrini contributed to this reporter.
