Authorities tried to deport a Palestinian activist who served more than a decade in prison, but because of a federal court ruling, he is now back in Virginia.
Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 60, was arrested and deported on Tuesday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement nabbed him at an immigration office in northern Virginia where he lives, according to the Associated Press. From there, he was put on a plane and was flown to Israel with plans for him to be released to Palestinian authorities.
But Ashqar never made it off the plane after a late-night emergency hearing in federal court.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III issued a ruling that said he could not be released through Israel because the deportation order said he was supposed to be sent to Jordan. Ashqar’s lawyer said his client feared that he would be intercepted and tortured by Israeli authorities if he were dropped off in Israel.
Despite the claim by Ashqar’s lawyer, Ellis said in a footnote that the ruling “must not be construed in any way as accepting as true petitioner’s (Ashqar’s) claim that he was tortured by Israeli officials in the past and that he has a bona fide fear that he will be tortured.”
ICE said it turned the chartered plane around and sent Ashqar back because it was “prohibited from executing the removal if Ashqar was delivered to Israeli authorities.” Further, despite being listed on the order, ICE couldn’t deport Ashqar to Jordan because the country has said it would not accept him.
Ashqar was born in the West Bank but came to the United States in 1989. He spent 11 years in prison after refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas. In 2005, while on house arrest and awaiting trial, Ashqar ran to succeed Yasser Arafat as president of the Palestinian National Authority. He finished in fourth place out of seven candidates.
Ashqar is now being held at a detention facility in Virginia awaiting an expedited ruling from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hamas said in a statement that called Ashqar “a national icon who is known for his sense of nationalism and loyalty for his people. … Indeed, all the Palestinian people are proud of him.”
The U.S. lists Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization.
