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BOND HEARING SET FOR AUGUST 29 IN "SECRET EVIDENCE" CASE
August 25, 2000
BRADENTON ? On Tuesday, Aug. 29, Dr. Mazen Al-Najjar, a stateless Palestinian accused by the government of being a threat to national security, is scheduled to go before an immigration judge for a new court-ordered bond hearing to determine whether he should be released from INS custody. The hearing was ordered by a federal judge who ruled on May 31 that the Muslim cleric had been detained unconstitutionally on the basis of secret evidence.
Dr. Al-Najjar, a former professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, has been held without bond in Bradenton's Downtown Detention Facility for more than three years. Neither he nor his attorneys have been able to confront the evidence against him. He will appear before Immigration Judge R. Kevin McHugh at 9 a.m. August 29 in Immigration Court, 515 11th St., Suite 300, located in Bradenton, Florida. Witnesses representing the interests of both the government and Dr. AlNajjar also are scheduled to testify.
In her May 31 decision, U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard instructed that in this new hearing, Dr. Al-Najjar must be afforded the right to confront the evidence against him. Attorneys representing Dr. Al-Najjar are nonetheless concerned that the government still intends to use secret evidence, but has not provided them with any indication whatsoever of its contents, thereby hampering Dr. Al-Najjar's ability to present a defense. Dr. Al-Najjar's attorneys have asked Judge McHugh to order the government to produce a summary of any secret evidence it plans to submit. He has declined to do so.
Although he has never been charged with a crime, Dr. Al-Najjar is being detained for his alleged political association with the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a group the United States government has designated as "terrorist." In an Aug. 4 motion filed with the Immigration Court, government attorneys tried unsuccessfully to block the administrative hearing, which was mandated by a federal district court judge more than two months ago.
On May 31, Judge Lenard ruled that the INS had violated Dr. Al-Najjar's constitutional due process rights by not allowing him or his attorneys the opportunity to review or rebut the speculative evidence that purportedly links him to the PIJ. She also ruled that "mere association" with the PIJ, which is all the INS has ever alleged, does not amount to a threat to national security. Instead, she held, the INS must, in a fair proceeding that guarantees Dr. Al-Najjar's due process rights, prove a 'degree of participation' in the activities of the [PIJ] in order to legally continue to detain him.
"We look forward to this opportunity to have a fair and open hearing, and are confident that when the government's charges are exposed to the light of day, Dr. Al-Najjar will be a free man," said David Cole, one of Dr. Al-Najjar's attorneys.
In several similar cases involving secret evidence in the past year, immigration judges have changed their minds and released immigrants who they initially detained on the basis of classified information, once the government disclosed enough about the case to permit the immigrant to defend himself.
Background
The lawsuit, Al-Najjar v. Janet Reno, was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Nationalities Service Center and Tampa-based attorney Martin Schwartz on behalf of Dr. Al-Najjar. His detention began on May 19, 1997 when INS and FBI agents stormed into his home and arrested him in front of his wife and three U.S.citizen daughters. Dr. Al-Najjar has lived in the United States as a student, professor and community activist for the past fifteen years.
