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Release Follows Landmark Decision for Due Process and the Rule of Law, Says ACLU
SCRANTON,
PA - Egyptian national Sameh Khouzam was
released from detention today days after a federal judge ruled that the
U.S. government
cannot rely on secret and unreviewable “assurances” from the Egyptian government
that it will not torture him upon his return. Last Thursday, the judge granted
Khouzam’s habeas corpus petition and ordered that he be immediately freed from a
Pennsylvania prison, where he has
been held since May. Khouzam is represented by the American Civil Liberties
Union.
“I cannot express how thankful and relieved I am to be a free man again. I am so grateful to my lawyers and to the American court system for stopping the government from sending me back to Egypt where I know I would be tortured,” said Khouzam. “This entire experience has been a nightmare, but I never lost my faith or the support from my community. I just want to put my life back together.”
In his decision last week, Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania soundly rejected the Bush administration’s claim that the executive branch has unfettered authority to deport Khouzam, notwithstanding a prior ruling by a federal appeals court that it is probable Khouzam would be tortured if returned to Egypt.
Judge Vanaskie noted that Khouzam “made a credible showing that he had been the victim of torture at the hands of Egyptian law enforcement” and that removing Khouzam based on diplomatic assurances without court review would render the procedures established for seeking protection under the Convention Against Torture “a farce.” He added, “Not even the President of the United States has the authority to sacrifice on the alter [sic] of foreign relations the right to be free from torture.”
Following Judge Vanaskie’s decision Thursday, the government asked Judge Vanaskie to block Khouzam’s release while it appealed the ruling to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Vanaskie denied the government’s request, rejecting its claim that Khouzam posed a danger or a flight risk. Judge Vanaskie noted that Khouzam was previously released into the community for more than a year during which time he fully complied with his conditions of release, “reporting regularly as required and gainfully employed and viewed as a valuable employee as well.” The government then sought an emergency stay of Khouzam’s release from the Third Circuit which was denied yesterday.
Until today, Khouzam - a
Christian who came to the United
States in 1998 fleeing religious persecution in
Egypt - was
detained in the York County Prison in
Pennsylvania, the same prison
where he previously spent eight years while the government fought his efforts to
obtain protection under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Even after a
federal appeals court found that he was entitled to such protection, the
government refused to release him until it was ordered to do so by a federal
court in February 2006. Since that time, and prior to his re-detention in May of
2007, Khouzam was living and working in
Pennsylvania as controller of a
real estate company.
“All people - citizens or not - are entitled to the protections of our Constitution,” said Judy Rabinovitz, a senior attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. “The government cannot lock people up indefinitely, as they have done with Mr. Khouzam, simply because they are fighting deportation. The government already forced Mr. Khouzam to endure more than eight years of imprisonment. That it would try to continue to detain him after last week’s ruling is unconscionable.”
Ratified by the
U.S. in 1994,
and implemented by domestic legislation, the Convention Against Torture
prohibits the
U.S. from
transferring a person “to another State where there are substantial grounds for
believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.” The
U.S. government
is using diplomatic assurances - in Khouzam’s case and others - to circumvent
its treaty obligations, and transferring individuals to foreign countries
without judicial review.
In Khouzam’s case, neither he nor his lawyers
have seen the Egyptian assurances that are the basis for terminating his CAT
protection. Nor has the
U.S. government
offered any explanation for why these assurances would be deemed sufficiently
reliable to protect Khouzam from torture. Indeed, Khouzam did not receive any
notice that his CAT protection was being terminated until May 29 of last year,
when, upon appearing for a routine check-in with immigration authorities, he was
taken into detention and provided with a one-paragraph explanation from Julie
Myers, Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, informing him
that he could be removed within 72 hours.
Last June, Judge Vanaskie
issued an emergency stay of Khouzam’s removal, shortly after Khouzam was
informed that his CAT protection had been terminated and his removal was
imminent. That stay remained in place pending the outcome of the court
proceedings. The U.S. government, however, has opposed the court’s involvement
in this case, repeatedly arguing that the executive branch has unfettered
authority to determine that the diplomatic assurances are sufficiently reliable
to deport Khouzam, and that the federal courts lack jurisdiction to review its
decision.
Judge Vanaskie’s decision is available at:
www.aclu.org/immigrants/asylum/33580lgl20080110.html
The
U.S. State Department has documented widespread Egyptian persecution and
discrimination against Christians and other religious minorities, as well as
widespread use of torture in
Egypt. A State
Department report on the matter is available at:
www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78851.htm
Senator
Robert Casey, Jr. (D-PA) sent a letter to Homeland Security Director Michael
Chertoff supporting Khouzam and denouncing
Egypt’s
diplomatic assurances. That letter is available at:
www.aclupa.org/downloads/CaseytoChertoffonKhouzam.pdf
Congressman
Joseph Pitts (R-PA) also sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
requesting Khouzam’s deportation be cancelled. That letter is available at:
www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/29982prs20070604.html
Attorneys
representing Khouzam are Rabinovitz, Amrit Singh, Lee Gelernt and Alice Clapman
of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, Vic Walczak and Mary Catherine Roper
of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and Morton Sklar of World Organization for Human
Rights USA.
Additional documents related to this case, including the
ACLU’s brief, are available at: www.aclupa.org/egyptiantorture