Sunday, we wrote about The Forgotten Prisoner: Mukkaram Ali. He is the student from Norman, Oklahoma who let his friend Hussein al-Attas and an acquaintance, Zacharias Moussaoui, stay in his apartment for several weeks during the summer of 2001 when Ali was elsewhere. Ali has been detained since September, first as a material witness for the Government, and now as a defense witness for Moussaoui. Our earlier post explains why his continued detention should be revisited.

The Government dropped its request to hold Ali months ago as their investigation concluded he was a mere acquaintance of Moussaoui and had no terrorist ties. He was friends with the second man, Hussein al-Attas. who Ali let stay in his apartment with Moussaoui.

We've written about al-Attas before as well, see Descent Into Federal Detention. Al-Attas has been detained as a material witness since September for having given Moussaoui a ride from Norman to Minnesota where Moussaoui was going to try again at flight school.

Al-Attas was sentenced today to time served for lying to authorities about Moussaoui. Ordinarily, he would be released or deported.

But no, al-Attas, whose criminal sentence has been served will not be released from jail. He is scheduled to testify for the Government against Moussaoui, and so he remains in detention until the trial is over (or his testimony is concluded and he is excused). Trial is now set for June, 2003.

This is one of the reasons the critics of Bush and Ashcroft decry these detentions. They are indefinite in scope. The material witnesses are kept in solitary or near solitary confinement 23 hours a day, with restricted access to counsel and family.

Ali overstayed his student visa and remains in jail for almost 2 years while al-Attas panicked when arrested and lied to the investigators about his knowledge of Moussaoui. The Government acknowledges that neither one was involved in terrorist activities. And they stay in jail for 2 years? Something is very wrong with this picture.