Judge tells wife in terror-linked divorce to go home

A Tennessee woman who is seeking a divorce from her husband because of his alleged "ties to terrorism" and had traveled out of state to consult with her general counsel lawyer has returned home – under a judge's order to do that or lose that home until the divorce case is concluded.

Rosine Ghawji returned yesterday to her Memphis home under the order from Judge Donna M. Fields in the divorce case in which Mrs. Ghawji has alleged her husband is a self-proclaimed radical Islamist and "has threatened to kill her and her two boys if they did not abide by radical Islamic doctrine."

The order was based on second-hand statements to the court that the children, ages 14 and 18, were in the home with only a caretaker who didn't speak English, but Mrs. Ghawji has confirmed the caretaker and teens all are fluent in French.

Mrs. Ghawji also has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tennessee against the judge, similar to an earlier filing in federal court in Florida, over alleged civil rights violations that have happened during the course of the divorce court proceedings.

The Florida lawsuit was filed by Larry Klayman, who advises Mrs. Ghawji but is not representing her at her divorce trial, where Fields declined to allow him to fill in when another lawyer bowed out of her case just days before the trial started Jan. 2.

The federal action in Tennessee is similar, after the Florida federal judge seemed to suggest that jurisdiction might rest within the Tennessee federal court system, according to the general counsel.

The Florida case alleged the circumstances Fields has allowed in the divorce case have resulted in violations of the woman's civil rights, including privacy, attorney-client privilege, due process, equal protection and free speech.

The action seeks to enjoin the Memphis court from continuing with the divorce trial, or ruling in that case, pending a decision from the federal court regarding the allegations of civil rights violations.

The lawsuit also alleged the state judge issued a ruling that prevented Mrs. Ghawji from pursuing any complaint against her husband, an alleged girlfriend, and a child psychologist.

Mrs. Ghawji, who earlier filed a judicial ethics complaint against the judge alleging her concerns about terrorism have been excluded from the trial improperly, has confirmed that her husband also has told her he would be glad if their two teen sons, Louis and Takek, would blow themselves up for Allah.

The judge based her order for Mrs. Ghawji to return to Memphis on the basis that the two sons were in the home in the care of a caretaker.

"Dr. Maher Ghawji did not know of this until the children advised him of the situation; as of the date of the entry of this Order Dr. Ghawji does not know the woman's name nor does he know anything about her; the Court finds that based upon the testimony the woman does not speak English as related to Dr. Ghawji by the children."

The judge continued that "this is not an appropriate situation to continue."

Further, in the future, Mrs. Ghawji cannot leave Shelby County without losing the home, the judge said, and, "Pending the ruling of this Court, Mrs. Ghawji is enjoined from taking the children outside of Shelby County, Tennessee nor having anyone acting in concert with her taking the children outside of Shelby County, Tennessee."

The judge who heard the federal civil rights lawsuit in Florida declined to issue a temporary restraining order, seeming to suggest jurisdiction might rest within the federal courts in Tennessee, where the new filing was introduced.

Mrs. Ghawji also has alleged her husband has defined their sons' futures as being "good Muslims or dead."

She's alleged the divorce judge improperly excluded her concerns over terrorism from the trial, and as a result of a variety of influences, including that from the FBI which she said, "has likely turned her husband into an informant," her trial lawyer was allowed to withdraw "without good cause" so that she no longer effectively can present her case.

Even though the judge's ruling to let the lawyer go came just days before the trial, she said the judge refused to delay the hearing, and told her she must go forward, even without counsel.

The ethics complaint also cited a decision by Fields to put one of Mrs. Ghawji's out-of-state lawyers on the witness stand, plucking him from the audience where he was taking notes, and ordering him to testify about attorney-client communications with Mrs. Ghawji, she alleged.

"To coerce the lawyer to testify Judge Fields threatened him with fabricated criminal charges of kidnapping based on the simple fact that the Ghawji children had not gone to school that day," a statement from the general counsel said.

Mrs. Ghawji, a Christian woman who once served as an FBI informant on her husband's alleged support of terrorism, said she wants a divorce because her husband, a self-described radical Muslim, has bragged of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the more radical groups in Islam.

Joe Kaufman, who has run an anti-terrorism organization for several years, noted that both of the Ghawji sons have, in e-mails and other communications, told friends their father was planning to take them to Syria against their will, and one noted that his grandfather has promised to beat him up when he arrived there.

She has said her husband's brother once bragged "we got them" when an explosion at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia killed 19 Americans.

She also alleges her husband had an affair with a spokeswoman working for the Islamic Society of Central Florida.

That organization, she said, tried to sponsor a fundraiser featuring Siraj Wahhaj, who is on the U.S. Attorney’s list of potential co-conspirators to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

She's also said she spent hours waiting for her husband while he was in meetings at a mosque occupied by blind Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman, now serving a life sentence in the SuperMax prison in Colorado on accusations he helped in the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings in New York.

She's also reported that on Sept. 11, 2001, a few hours before the terrorist attacks, her husband's brother send an e-mail announced some of his friends were coming to the U.S., and they should be made to feel welcome.

She also, at the FBI's instructions, for a period of time wore a wire and reported on any indications her husband was supporting terrorism, she has said.

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