Islamo-probe
Whining ‘fraud’ doc seeks quiz to KO jury bias
A BROOKLYN surgeon charged in a massive Medicare billing scheme says he fears he may not get an impartial jury in his upcoming trial because he is Muslim.
Dr. Syed Imran Ahmed, a Pakistani-born weight-loss surgeon and wound care specialist, is asking the judge to use a questionnaire to probe prospective jurors’ views about Muslims, immigration and the recent terrorist attacks by ISIS sympathizers.
Ahmed’s lawyer, Morris Fodeman, concedes the request may be unheard of in a health fraud case, but said it is a consequence of current events. Jury questionnaires are typically used in complex cases involving organized crime, terrorism, and the death penalty to gauge whether they harbor biases.
“The United States has seen an unprecedented spike in Islamophobia since the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris, San Bernardino and elsewhere with Muslims all over the country falling victim to shootings, personal assaults, harassment, protests, and attacks on their houses of worship,” Fodeman wrote to Federal Judge Dora Irizarry.
Fodeman also notes that leading Republican pres- idential candidate e Donald Trump has s called for a tempo- rary ban on Muslim m immigration, ann opinion that has res- onated with many y voters.
“It is simplyy inevitable thatt some, if not many members of the (jury pool) will harbor negative preexisting views about Muslims or Middle Eastern immigrants,” Fodeman stated in the papers.
Ahmed’s career was an American success story until his arrest in 2014 for submitting millions of dollars in alleged false claims to Medicare for surgical procedures he did not perform — including six procedures on a patient who had already died.
Ahmed, 51, operated offices in Brooklyny and Long Island, and lived in a $4 million mansion in Muttontown, L.I.
The feds say that several days after he was questioned by agents, he wired $1 million to an account he controlled in Pakistan.
Fodeman submitted a proposed questionnaire that asks prospective jurors to rate their opinion of Muslims, whether they know any Muslims, where they stand on the issue of Muslim immigration and whether their opinion of Muslims has been influenced by media coverage of terrorist attacks.
Federal prosecutors have not yet responded to the request for a questionnaire.
The court papers refer to a recent poll that suggested a majority of Americans have a negative view of Islam, and a Rasmussen poll that found 44% of Americans agreed with Trump’s immigration ban.
Fodeman said a questionnaire will give prospective jurors a forum to explain themselves in full candor.