Judge's Order Frees Indian Scholar Detained in US Over Support for Palestine
The Wire Staff
New Delhi: Indian scholar Badar Khan Suri, who was arrested while he was a postdoctoral fellow at the US's Georgetown University as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on college activism, has been freed from a Texas detention centre.
Suri was held outside his house at Arlington in Virginia on March 17. Politico had reported that masked immigration agents arrested Suri.
Suri's lawyers have said that he was targeted "for speech in support of Palestinian rights and family ties to Gaza". US authorities accuse him of "spreading Hamas propaganda". They have also accused him of having terrorist connections.
US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ruled on May 14 that his detention violated his right to free speech and due process, BBC has reported.
The report said that she also refuted the government's claims that he had ties to Hamas through his wife Mapheze Saleh, a US citizen whose father was a government official in Gaza.
"There was no evidence submitted to this court regarding statements that he made" in support of Hamas, the judge said.
The Associated Press reports that he is also facing deportation proceedings in an immigration court in Texas.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Suri told reporters after his release. “It took two months, but I’m extremely thankful that finally I’m free," AP quoted him as having said.
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