Georgetown University postdoctoral researcher and professor Badar Khan Suri was released on Wednesday two months after being released at the federal detention center in Texas.
Indian national Suri was arrested in March, with the administration claiming he is a threat to U.S. interests and has close ties to known or suspected terrorists. This week, a federal judge in Virginia ordered immediate release because of the lack of evidence to support such claims.
Suri is one of about twelve foreign nationals of the Trump administration targeting pro-Palestinian radical America, including Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, Rümeysaöztürk and Momodou Taal. Although Khalil is still in custody, Mahadawi was released on bail on April 30 and will be released from federal custody last week. Taal chose to leave the United States in April.
It is said that The New York Times. Surry’s lawyer believes he was targeted because his father-in-law served as a political consultant to the Hamas-led government in Gaza in the early 2000s.
On March 15, Surry was arrested outside his home in Roslyn, Virginia and in detention centers in Virginia, Louisiana and Texas. Suri described his treatment at the Prairie Detention Center in Texas, saying he was tied to his ankles, wrists and body.
Other international scholars are trapped in a legal battle with the federal government over challenges in the United States
Dodukan Gunaydin, a University of Minnesota student, has been in custody on ice since March, despite his case being overturned. According to his attorney, Alireza Doroudi, a PhD student at the University of Alabama, asked to leave voluntarily to avoid prolonged detention. Columbia student Leqaa Kordia was arrested in March and stayed at an immigration detention center in Texas.
