Home »
News &
Events » News Archive » 2002 Press Releases
PALESTINIAN PROFESSOR CHALLENGES HIS DETENTION BY INS AS ILLEGAL
CHARGES OF TERRORIST TIES PROVED UNFOUNDED
May 14, 2002
MIAMI ? Lawyers for Mazen Al Najjar returned to federal court today, filing a new habeas corpus petition arguing that his continued detention by the Immigration and Naturalization Service violates federal law and the Constitution.
Al Najjar, a Palestinian accused of being associated with a terrorist organization, spent three-and-a-half years in custody based on secret evidence that neither he nor his attorneys ever saw. He was released in December 2000 after a federal judge ruled his detention unconstitutional. An immigration judge later found the government's charges of terrorist ties were unfounded. Former Attorney General Janet Reno then declined to block his release.
Al Najjar was arrested again on November 24, 2001 after a court refused to overturn his deportation order. The government acknowledged at the time that Al Najjar had nothing to do with the events of September 11, but in a press release issued on the day of his arrest the Department of Justice said that his detention demonstrated its "commitment to address terrorism."
"The re-detention of Al Najjar is an exercise of raw government power that serves no legitimate purpose," said Randall Marshall, Legal Director of the ACLU of Florida, which is part of Al Najjar's legal defense team. "Al Najjar has never been accused of a crime, yet he is being detained in solitary confinement under conditions more severe than those imposed on many convicted murderers."
The motion filed in federal court today argues that under the immigration law that applies to his case, the INS is authorized to detain him for at most six months from the time that his deportation order could have been carried out. That six-month period ran out today, and Al Najjar therefore argues that under the law, he must be released.
He also argues that his continued detention is unconstitutional for two reasons: (1) he has been found not to pose a danger or a flight risk, and therefore there is no legitimate reason to detain him; and (2) there is no significant likelihood that he will be deported in the foreseeable future. The country to which he has been ordered deported, the United Arab Emirates, informed Al Najjar's counsel on March 11, 2002 that it would not admit him. And as a stateless Palestinian, Al Najjar has no right to return to any country.
"Mazen Al Najjar has never even been charged with a crime, yet he has spent more than four years behind bars, first on secret evidence that he had no chance to rebut, and for the last six months on no evidence of dangerousness whatsoever," said David Cole, lead counsel for Al Najjar and a professor at Georgetown University Law Center. "Under immigration law and the Constitution, however, his nightmare should now come to an end, because he is clearly entitled to be released."
In addition to Cole, Al Najjar also is represented by Randall Marshall of the ACLU Foundation of Florida, Nancy Chang of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Joseph Hohenstein of the Nationalities Service Center, and Florida immigration attorneys Martin Schwarz and Ira Kurzban.
"The government's charge that Mazen is a terrorist was flatly rejected following a two week trial," said attorney Nancy Chang, of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. "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."
MEDIA CONTACT:
Miami: Randall C. Marshall, ACLU of Florida Legal Director, (305) 576-2337 ext. 16
Washington: David Cole, Georgetown University Law Center, (202) 662-9078
New York: Nancy Chang, Center for Constitutional Rights, 212-614-6420
Philadelphia: Joe Hohenstein, Nationalities Service Center, 215-893-8400
Tampa: Martin Schwartz, 813-269-7421
