BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — A Palestinian who has been jailed for three years without charges on evidence the government won't disclose was denied his freedom again Thursday when an immigration panel blocked a judge's order releasing him.
U.S. Immigration Judge R. Kevin McHugh had ordered Mazen Al-Najjar's release on $8,000 bond, saying the government failed to give him enough information to defend himself.
But the Immigration and Naturalization Service successfully blocked his release when the Board of Immigration Appeal in Washington said the case needed further study by a three-judge immigration panel.
Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., responded by calling for Attorney General Janet Reno's resignation. He cited government decisions to keep in jail both Al-Najjar and Anwar Haddam, who has been held on secret evidence for four years in Fredericksburg, Va.
"In my 25 years in Congress, I have never seen such an act of injustice," Bonior, the minority whip, said from his Washington office. "This is an absolute outrage. These are Gestapo-like tactics."
Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller declined to comment.
Al-Najjar is among about 20 immigrants, mostly Arab-Americans, held in U.S. jails without criminal charges on classified evidence.
His cause has been championed by local lawyers, civil rights groups and members of Congress who say Al-Najjar's detention without charges, based on evidence to which he has no access, is unconstitutional.
"The immigration judge has already reviewed both public evidence and secret evidence and clearly ordered that he doesn't pose any threat whatsoever to the community or national security," said Martin Schwartz, one of Al-Najjar's lawyers.
The Palestinian has been in the United States since 1981. His student visa expired years ago. The INS contends he has been living in the country illegally for more than 15 years.
Al-Najjar, who was raised in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, is married and has three American-born daughters. His parents are naturalized U.S. citizens.
Al-Najjar and his brother-in-law, Sami Al-Arian, were associated with the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, an academic think tank affiliated with the University of South Florida, and the Islamic Committee for Palestine, a group which said its mission was fostering better understanding of Muslim issues.
Former think tank director, Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, spent four years with the organization, then assumed command of the terrorist Islamic Jihad in October 1995, six months after leaving Tampa for the Mideast.
The government maintained the Florida organizations fronted for the Islamic Jihad, which has claimed responsibility for terrorist bombings.
Al-Najjar has denied ties to terrorists.
Reno recently blocked Haddam's release for 45 days, putting the case into the hands of the next administration. There is concern that Haddam would be executed if he is returned to Algeria, but he has been denied asylum.
Bonior, who has sponsored a bill to make secret evidence law unconstitutional, said he has visited both Haddam and Al-Najjar in jail and talked with the president and with Reno about their cases.
"We were to the point they were going to be freed and someone decided they are to continue to rot in jail," Bonior said. "When you tell people about the secret evidence law, they don't believe this goes on here in this country."