NEw York – Menottée et chained, Mahmoud Khalil was rushed from New York to Louisiana last weekend in a way that left the graduate student of Columbia University feeling as if he were kidnapped, wrote his lawyers in a updated trial to ask for his immediate release.
Lawyers described in detail what happened to the Palestinian activist when he was transported by plane in Louisiana by agents who, according to him, had never identified each other. Once there, he was left to sleep in a bunker without a pillow or coverage while senior American officials applauded the effort to expel a man that his lawyers sometimes say the “public face” of student demonstrations on the Columbia campus against Israeli military actions in Gaza.
The deposit Thursday evening before the Federal Court of Manhattan is the result of the Wednesday ordinance of a federal judge that he is finally authorized to speak with Khalil.
The lawyers said that his treatment with the federal authorities on Saturday, during his first arrest, reminded Khalil on Monday when he left Syria shortly after the forced disappearance of his friends there during a period of arbitrary detention in 2013.
“Throughout this process, Mr. Khalil felt like he was kidnapped,” the lawyers wrote about his treatment.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced the arrest of Khalil as the first “many to come”, promising social media to expel the students he said he gave himself up to a “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic and anti-American activity”.
In court documents, lawyers of the Ministry of Justice said that Kahlil had been arrested under a law allowing the Secretary of State Marco Rubio to withdraw someone from the country if he had reasonable reasons to believe that their presence or activities would have early consequences of potentially serious foreign policy.
Trump and Rubio were added as defendants in the civil trial seeking to release Khalil.
Government lawyers asked a judge to trial or transfer him to New Jersey or Louisiana, saying that the court belongs to the places where Khalil has been detained since his detention.
According to the trial, Khalil has repeatedly asked to speak to a lawyer after the permanent American resident without criminal history was torn off by federal agents while he and his wife returned to the residential housing of Columbia, where they lived, after dinner with a friend.
Faced with agents from the Department of Homeland Security, Khalil briefly called his lawyer before being taken to the FBI headquarters in Lower Manhattan, the trial.
This is where Khalil saw an agent approaching another agent and said: “The White House requires an update,” wrote lawyers.
At one point early Sunday, Khalil was taken, handcuffed and chained to the Elizabeth detention center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a private installation where he spent the night in a cold waiting room for treatment, his refused coverage request, the trial said.
When he reached the front of the line for treatment, he was told that his treatment would not occur after all because he was transported by the immigration authorities, he said.
Put in a van, Khalil noticed that one of the agents had received an SMS to educate that Khalil should not use his phone, said the trial.
At 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, he was put on an American Airlines flight from Kennedy International Airport in Dallas, where he was put in the second flight for Alexandria, Louisiana. He arrived at 1 a.m. on Monday and a police car took him to the Louisiana detention center in Jena, Louisiana, he said.
In the establishment, he is now concerned about his pregnant wife and is “also very concerned about missing her from the birth of his first child,” said the trial.
In April, Khalil had to start a job and receive health services on which the couple counted to cover costs related to the child’s birth and care, he added.
“It is very important for Mr. Khalil to be able to continue his protected political speech, defend and protest against the rights of the Palestinians – both at the national level and abroad,” said the trial, noting that Khalil planned to speak of a panel during the next first in Copenhagen, Denmark, a documentary in which he is presented.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Khalil lawyers said they had not granted communications protected by Khalil, a prosecutor-client since Khalil since his arrest and had been informed that they could speak to him in 10 days. Judge Jesse Mr. Furman ordered that at least a conversation was authorized on Wednesday and Thursday.
