Ohio lawyer Omar Tarazi is suing a Florida attorney and a blogger he says defamed him in connection with the Rifqa Bary case.
In a civil suit filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, Tarazi said that attorney John Stemberger and blogger Pamela G. Oshry made statements on national television and on the Web that Tarazi was involved with terrorists.
Tarazi was the attorney for Mohamed and Aysha Bary of the Northeast Side, the parents of Rifqa Bary.
Rifqa, now 18, was involved in a much-publicized attempt to sever herself from her Muslim parents after she converted to Christianity and ran away last year.
She was granted permanent residency in the United States last week, attorney Kort Gatterdam said today. She had been an illegal immigrant.
Tarazi sued Stemberger and Oshry for $10 million on Friday. His complaint states that Stemberger falsely said that Tarazi was being paid by an organization with ties to terrorists and that, essentially, Tarazi was not a qualified attorney.
Tarazi says in his complaint that Oshry, who blogs under the name Pamela Geller, made similar assertions in her blog.
The statements by Stemberger and Oshry “permanently harmed” his personal and professional reputation and his private law practice, the suit says.
“Potential clients that do a simple web search to check on plaintiff’s credentials will find these accusations of perjury, conflict of interest, being unqualified as an attorney,” as well as claims that Tarazi was a member of Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the United States, the suit says.
“I’m saying I’m not going to take this,” Tarazi said today. “It affects my job, my career, it affects everything. It’s pushback to say that you can’t just call someone a terrorist with no basis and get away with it.”
Tarazi also says in his complaint that the accusations against him were made to influence the legal proceedings involving Bary.