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Mazen Al-Najjar Is Still In Jail: INS Deadline For Release Passes
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Mazen Al-Najjar, left, stands with his wife, Fedaa, and attorney David Cole, right, during a news conference before he was re-arrested and held without charge. |
By Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, May 18 (IslamOnline) – The six-month review of the detention of former University of South Florida teacher Mazen al-Najjar came and went this week, yet the stateless Palestinian refugee is still behind bars, and his attorneys have filed a petition arguing that his continued detention violates constitutional law.
"Mazen Al-Najjar has never even been charged with a crime, yet he has spent more than four years behind bars,” said Georgetown University law professor David Cole, referring to the three and a half years al-Najjar spent in custody under secret evidence, and the six months he has been held since November 2001 on deportation arrangements.
"His nightmare should now come to an end, because he is clearly entitled to be released," Cole, who is serving as lead counsel for al-Najjar, said in a statement.
Al-Najjar was arrested last fall after a federal court affirmed a deportation order for him. According to a press release by the Tampa Bay Coalition for Peace and Justice, the government never said al-Najjar had anything to do with September 11, but the Department of Justice said in a press release issued that day that al-Najjar’s detention illustrated its "commitment to address terrorism."
The St. Petersburg Times in Florida published a story on Wednesday about the petition and al-Najjar’s current situation; they reported that Justice Department officials would not comment on the case.
“They said they’re going to have a review for his case by the 27 [of May], which is basically a way to get off the hook,” said al-Najjar’s brother-in-law, Sami al-Arian, who heads the Tampa Bay Coalition, “because according to the regulation that he’s supposed to be under, he’s supposed to be out, no questions asked.”
Al-Arian, who has been permanently suspended from his tenured position at the University of South Florida pending a decision on his firing due to his own Palestinian activism, told IslamOnline that al-Najjar’s detention review under newer Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) regulations made it harder to tell what might happen next. Al-Najjar was detained under an older INS regulation, so “the new regulation doesn’t apply to him,” al-Arian said.
Another of al-Najjar’s lawyers, Nancy Chang, of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, said in the Tampa Bay Coalition’s press release that al-Najjar’s detention was clearly unconstitutional because none of the government’s allegations against him could be substantiated and because they were unable to secure a country of deportation.
"The government's charge that Mazen has ties to terrorism and is a threat to national security was flatly rejected following a two week trial," Chang said. "Six months out from the entry of his final order of deportation, he has no prospects of being deported because of his status as a stateless Palestinian. The laws and Constitution of this nation require his release."
The Tampa Bay Coalition, headed by al-Najjar’s brother-in-law, al-Arian, said that the habeas corpus motion filed Tuesday argues that the INS can detain him for no longer than six months from the date that his deportation order could have been carried out; that six-month deadline passed on Tuesday.
His continued detention is unconstitutional, the Coalition says, because he has not proven to pose a danger or a flight risk, and because there is “no significant likelihood” that he would be deported anytime soon, as more than one country, to which he has been ordered deported, has refused to take him.
Al-Najjar, who has lived in the U.S. since 1981 and has three American-born daughters, was first arrested in 1997 due to his association with the Florida-based Islamic Committee for Palestine (ICP) and the World and Islam Studies Enterprise (WISE), both of which were accused – but never charged – of being fronts for terrorist support networks after one of their members turned up as the new head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in 1995.
He was never charged with anything, and was denied bail on the basis of evidence neither he nor his lawyers ever saw. In 1999, a habeas federal court lawsuit was filed; in May 2000, it was found that al-Najjar had been denied due process during his bail hearing. In October, another judge ruled that al-Najjar was not a threat to national security as his detractors had claimed in trying to keep him behind bars, because there were no "facially legitimate and bona fide reasons to conclude that [Respondent] is a threat to national security."
Finally, after then-Attorney General Janet Reno blocked the government’s appeal to continue his detention, al-Najjar was freed in December 2000, only to be re-arrested this past November.
For the past six months, al-Najjar has been kept in 23-hour solitary lockdown, shackled hand and foot whenever he leaves his cell, strip-searched twice a day even after non-contact visits, and allowed only one 15-minute phone call per week to his family. An Amnesty International report this year found that he was not allowed visits from his family for the first 30 days of his detention.
He is denied access to a prayer rug, Qur’an or even a clock.
The INS last week agreed to change the conditions of his confinement, according to the Tampa Bay Coalition, but he is still in jail.
"The law is clear," attorney Cole was quoted as saying in the St. Petersburg Times article. "They have no authority to hold him any longer."
At this point, the petition will have to be considered, Cole said, and the government has said it will review al-Najjar’s detention on June 7, the Times article reported.
Cole said that the government could keep trying to deport al-Najjar if they want, and could impose “reporting requirements,” but they must release him, the article reported. Al-Najjar has cooperated fully with the INS, so they have no reason to continue detaining him, Cole said.
Al-Arian said that their families are very hopeful, but the saga has been draining for everyone.
“We’re anticipating that he will be out, obviously he’s very exhausted,” he told IslamOnline. “The family is very, very exhausted. His daughters are very distraught,” he said, adding that they were only waiting for the results of this petition.
“We do not expect anything to happen immediately,” he cautioned. “Either the judge will rule in our favor or [hold] a hearing.”
The Tampa Bay Coalition held a peaceful rally in front of the Tampa City Hall on Friday, May 17, calling for al-Najjar’s release.
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