UAE rejects Al-Najjar's request for residency

Revised March 22, 2002

© St. Petersburg Times
published March 19, 2002

WASHINGTON -- The United Arab Emirates has rejected Mazen Al-Najjar's request for residency, setting the stage for a renewed legal battle over the use of classified intelligence information in immigration cases.

A stateless Palestinian linked to terrorism by the United States but never charged with a crime, Al-Najjar has been jailed since a federal appeals court in Atlanta affirmed a final deportation order against him Nov. 13.

"We regret that the entry of Mr. Al-Najjar to the UAE is not possible at this time," an official of the UAE Embassy in Washington, Saeed R. Al Zaabi, wrote in a March 11 letter to al-Najjar lawyer Joe Hohenstein.

Al Zaabi said neither the temporary work visa from the UAE that Al-Najjar held more than 20 years ago nor the presence of family in the UAE qualifies him for re-entry.

If Al-Najjar wants to enter the UAE, he "should find a (work-related) sponsorship and initiate new procedures for the visa," the letter said.

The UAE's rejection of Al-Najjar's residency request appears to bolster his long-standing claim that he cannot be deported because no country will accept him.

At the same time, there is no indication the U.S. government plans to back away from its equally long-standing claim that Al-Najjar is a threat to national security.

These two views have clashed before, and now it appears they will clash again, most likely after May 14, when the legal authority the government is currently invoking to hold al-Najjar expires.

In 1997, the former University of South Florida teacher sparked a national debate over civil liberties when he challenged an immigration judge's decision to keep him jailed on the basis of classified evidence allegedly linking him to the terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Al-Najjar eventually spent 31/2 years in jail on the basis of the classified information. Then-Attorney General Janet Reno released him in December 2000 after a federal judge ruled his constitutional rights were violated by the government's refusal to share the secret evidence with him.

Al-Najjar's current detention is not based on any intelligence information; rather, it is because his appeals in his long-running deportation case have run out.

At the moment, the government has "unfettered discretion" to keep Al-Najjar jailed for the purpose of bringing about his deportation, U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard ruled last month. But she noted a 2001 Supreme Court decision, Zadvydas vs. Davis, sets a six-month time limit on detention in such cases.

On May 14, it will be six months since the appeals court in Atlanta affirmed Al-Najjar's final deportation order. If Al-Najjar still hasn't been deported by then, the government will either have to free him or produce evidence that he is a security threat who must be jailed indefinitely.

And the evidence that he is a security threat is classified, meaning the courts will likely be asked to again take up the unsettled question of whether the use of secret information is constitutional.

Al-Najjar is being held in solitary confinement at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex near Bushnell, about 75 miles north of Tampa Bay.

His case is entwined with that of his brother-in-law, Sami Al-Arian, a tenured USF professor and Palestinian whom USF president Judy Genshaft suspended for misconduct after he appeared on a cable news network discussing alleged past ties to terrorism.

Al-Arian was a founder of the World and Islam Studies Enterprises, an Islamic think tank at USF that was raided by the FBI in 1995 after a former head of the group turned up as the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Al-Najjar was also involved with the think tank.

U.S. Attorney Mac Cauley in Tampa announced last month that his office is investigating al-Arian.

Al-Najjar's case, meanwhile, is being watched closely by government lawyers and civil liberties advocates because of the precedent it may set for other terrorism-related immigration cases.

But Al-Najjar's lawyers say the UAE's rejection of his entry request is his light at the end of the tunnel.

"I think in a couple of months he should be a free man. In my view he should be a free man today because the government has not pointed to any reason he should be locked up," said David Cole, one of Al-Najjar's attorneys.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright