A federal judge orders the release on bail of Georgetown scholar Dr Badar Khan Suri
ON May 14, a federal judge ordered the release on bail of Georgetown scholar Dr Badar Khan Suri, following a harrowing eight weeks in Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) detention. DrKhan Suri walked free from a Texas courthouse the same day, amid cheers from his supporters.
Dr Khan Suri was arrested by ICE on March 17 amid the Trump administration’s crackdown and detention of other students including pro-Palestine student activists Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Mohsen Mahdawi, the latter two of whom, like Khan Suri, are now free, reports Peoples Disparch.
Dr Khan Suri is a visa holder who is married to a Palestinian-American US citizen. Prior to Dr Khan Suri’s arrest, both him and his spouse were doxxed by extreme pro-Israel websites Canary Mission and CAMERA. For years, these websites have shared detailed information about pro-Palestine activists, particularly students, often resulting in real life consequences from the online blacklist. Recently, Canary Mission has taken credit for the detentions of students such as Ozturk – and even maintains a list of students it believes should be targeted for deportation.
According to Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, Dr Khan Suri’s release is “in the public interest to disrupt the chilling effect on protected speech.”
“Hearing the judge’s words brought tears to my eyes,” said Dr Khan Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh. “I truly wish I could give her a heartfelt hug from me and from my three children, who long every day to see their father again. Speaking out about what’s happening in Palestine is not a crime. Let’s show the world that this country is still a place where people can and do express their beliefs without fear.”
Dr Khan Suri experienced an excruciating eight weeks in ICE custody. According to his legal team, the scholar was first transferred to five different detention centers in three states in just four days before arriving at an ICE facility in Texas. He was issued used underwear, denied food and water to break his fast during Ramadan, and spent nearly two weeks in a room without a bed with a television turned on for 21 hours each day.
Dr Khan Suri’s detention traumatized members of his family, with his son spending days crying uncontrollably following his father’s disappearance, and later stopped speaking altogether. “I’ve never even been to a protest. I came to the US to work and raise my family: I go to work, come home late, and still they came and took me and broke my family,” said Dr Khan Suri in a statement issued while he was still in ICE detention. “In my work, I’ve seen lots of injustice. I just didn’t think it would happen to me here.”
“The Constitution protects us all – regardless of citizenship – from being targeted by the government for our political speech and our family associations. The Trump administration is trying to silence speech it doesn’t agree with by targeting people like Dr Khan Suri and Mahmoud Khalil, but ideas are not illegal,” said Legal Director Eden Heilman of the ACLU of Virginia, a part of Dr Khan Suri’s legal team.
“Dr Khan Suri’s arrest and detention far away from his family is part of an extreme and unprecedented attack by this administration designed to punish students and academics for their views, and we won’t stop fighting until Dr Khan Suri gets justice.”
