Urooj Rahman

Urooj was a legal aid lawyer from New York who was arrested on the first night of the uprising in Brooklyn and accused of throwing a molotov cocktail at an empty NYPD van. After over a year of fighting a slew of federal charges that together carried a mandatory minimum of 45 years in prison and a possible life sentence, Urooj initially took a non-cooperating plea to one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device which carries a sentence up to 10 years. Prosecutors indicated that they would seek to apply a “terrorism” sentencing enhancement against Urooj, which would make it much more likely that she would be sentenced to the full 10 years. In June of 2022, after months of additional litigation and negotiation, Urooj entered a new non-cooperating plea deal to only one count of Conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of only 5 years, and prosecutor agreeing to recommend a sentence of 18 to 24 months. On November 18, 2022, Urooj was sentenced to 15 months in prison with two years of supervised release and over $30,000 in restitution. She was ordered to turn herself to begin her sentence on January 15, 2023.

Urooj is currently in federal custody, please follow this link to read the support statement from her community and to learn how to be involved in her support.