custody

Hundreds of people have joined protests over the death in police custody of political blogger Albert Ojwang.

A Kenyan police officer has been arrested in connection with the death of Albert Ojwang, a political blogger who died in police custody, in a case that has reignited anger over police abuse and triggered street protests in Nairobi.

Police spokesperson Michael Muchiri said on Friday that a constable had been taken into custody, the AFP news agency reported.

He did not give further information, referring queries to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), which is leading the investigation. There was no immediate comment from the IPOA.

Ojwang, 31, was declared dead on Sunday, two days after his arrest in the town of Homa Bay in western Kenya for allegedly criticising the country’s deputy police chief Eliud Lagat.

The police initially claimed Ojwang fatally injured himself by banging his head against a cell wall, but an autopsy revealed injuries that pathologists said were “unlikely to be self-inflicted”.

The government’s own pathologist found signs of blunt force trauma, neck compression and soft tissue injuries, suggesting an assault. Independent pathologist Bernard Midia, who assisted with the post-mortem, also ruled out suicide.

Amid growing pressure, President William Ruto on Wednesday said Ojwang had died “at the hands of the police”, reversing earlier official accounts of his death.

The incident has added fuel to longstanding allegations of police brutality and extrajudicial killings in Kenya, particularly following last year’s antigovernment demonstrations. Rights groups say dozens were unlawfully detained after the protests, with some still unaccounted for.

Earlier this week, five officers were suspended to allow for what the police described as a “transparent” inquiry.

On Thursday, protesters flooded the streets of the capital, waving Kenyan flags and chanting “Lagat must go”, demanding the resignation of the senior police official Ojwang had criticised.

Ruto on Friday pledged swift action and said that his administration would “protect citizens from rogue police officers”. While Ruto has repeatedly promised to end enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, human rights groups accuse his government of shielding security agencies from accountability.

According to IPOA, 20 people have died in police custody in just the past four months. The death of Ojwang, a vocal online critic, has become a symbol of growing public frustration with unchecked police power.

International pressure is mounting, with both the United States and European Union calling for a transparent and independent investigation into Ojwang’s death.

McALESTER, Okla. — Oklahoma executed a man Thursday whose transfer to state custody was expedited by the Trump administration.

John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, received a three-drug lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:11 a.m., prison officials said. Hanson was sentenced to die after he was convicted of carjacking, kidnapping and killing a Tulsa woman in 1999.

“Peace to everyone,” Hanson said while strapped to a gurney inside the prison’s death chamber.

The execution began at 10:01 a.m. After the lethal drugs began to flow, a doctor entered the death chamber at 10:06 a.m. and declared him unconscious.

Hanson, whose name in some federal court records is George John Hanson, had been serving a life sentence in federal prison in Louisiana for several unrelated federal convictions. Federal officials transferred him to Oklahoma’s custody in March to follow through on President Trump’s sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty.

Hanson’s attorneys argued in a last-minute appeal that he did not receive a fair clemency hearing last month, claiming that one of the board members who denied him clemency was biased because he worked for the Tulsa County district attorney’s office when Hanson was prosecuted. A district court judge this week issued a temporary stay halting the execution, but that was later vacated.

Prosecutors alleged Hanson and accomplice Victor Miller kidnapped Mary Bowles from a Tulsa shopping mall. Prosecutors alleged the pair drove Bowles to a gravel pit near Owasso, where Miller shot and killed property owner Jerald Thurman. The two then drove Bowles a short distance away, where Hanson shot and killed Bowles, according to prosecutors. Miller received a no-parole life prison sentence for his role.

Thurman’s son, Jacob Thurman, witnessed Thursday’s execution and said it was the culmination of “the longest nightmare of our lives.”

“All families lose in this situation,” he said. “No one’s a winner.”

Bowles’ niece, Sara Mooney, expressed frustration that the litigation over Hanson’s death sentence dragged on for decades, calling it an “expensive and ridiculous exercise.”

“Capital punishment is not an effective form of justice when it takes 26 years,” she said.

During last month’s clemency hearing, Hanson expressed remorse for his involvement in the crimes and apologized to the victims’ families.

“I’m not an evil person,” Hanson said via a video link from the prison. “I was caught in a situation I couldn’t control. I can’t change the past, but I would if I could.”

Hanson’s attorneys acknowledged that he participated in the kidnapping and carjacking, but said there was no definitive evidence that he shot and killed Bowles. They painted Hanson as a troubled youth with autism who was controlled and manipulated by the domineering Miller.

Both Oklahoma Atty. Gen. Gentner Drummond and his predecessor, John O’Connor, had sought Hanson’s transfer during President Biden’s administration, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons denied it, saying the transfer was not in the public interest.

Murphy writes for the Associated Press.

Protests take place almost a year after several killed and seized by Kenyan police in finance bill protests.

Protesters took to the streets of Kenya’s capital Nairobi to express their fury over the death of a blogger arrested by police last week, as the country’s police watchdog reported that 20 people had died in custody over the last four months.

Police used tear gas to disperse crowds gathered close to the capital’s parliamentary building on Thursday to protest against the death of Albert Ojwang, a 31-year-old blogger arrested in the western town of Homa Bay last week for criticising the country’s deputy police chief Eliud Lagat.

Police had initially said Ojwang died “after hitting his head against a cell wall”, but pathologist Bernard Midia, part of a team that conducted an autopsy, said the wounds – including a head injury, neck compression and soft tissue damage – pointed to assault as the cause of death.

On Wednesday, President William Ruto admitted Ojwang had died “at the hands of the police”, reversing earlier official accounts of his death, saying in a statement that it was “heartbreaking and unacceptable”.

Kenyan media outlets reported on Thursday that a police constable had been arrested over Ojwang’s death.

Reporting from the protests in Nairobi, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb said that Ojwang, who wrote about political and social issues, had posted online about Lagat’s alleged role in a “bribery scandal”, in which the deputy police chief had already been implicated by a newspaper investigation.

“It’s angered people that he was detained for that, and then days later, dead in a police station,” said Webb, who added that people were calling for Lagat to be held to account, and “persisting in throwing stones at the police in spite of one volley of tear gas after the next being fired at them”.

Finance bill protests: one year on

The case has shone a light on the country’s security services, who have been accused of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances for years.

On Thursday, Independent Policing Oversight Authority chairperson Issak Hassan told lawmakers that there had been “20 deaths in police custody in the last four months”.

The authorities are now conducting an official investigation into Ojwang’s death.

On Wednesday, Inspector General Douglas Kanja apologised for police having previously implied that Ojwang died by suicide, telling a Senate hearing: “He did not hit his head against the wall.”

Ojwang’s death comes almost a year after several activists and protesters were killed and taken by police during finance bill protests – many are still missing.

The rallies led to calls for the removal of Ruto, who was criticised for the crackdown.

Amnesty International said Ojwang’s death in custody on Saturday “must be urgently, thoroughly and independently investigated”.

June 9 (UPI) — The Israeli government announced Monday that the boat crew of civilians that included Swedish activist Greta Thunberg it intercepted attempting to transport humanitarian supplies to Gaza will be returned to their home countries upon arrival in Israel.

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or MFA, reported across its social media platform that the vessel, identified as the “Madleen” by the nonprofit Freedom Flotilla Coalition organization, or FFC, that launched it, is being brought to an Israel port.

The MFA refers to the craft as a “selfie yacht,” and has confirmed that Thunberg is aboard, in addition to other “celebrities,” but did not name them. The FFC listed all their names last week after the announcement that the boat was already on its way “with life-saving aid, to break Israel’s illegal siege of Gaza and establish a people’s sea corridor.”

The MFA also stated that the passengers aboard the Madleen have been supplied with sandwiches and water, and that the “tiny amount of aid that wasn’t consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels.”

It also posted a photo of Thunberg Monday, apparently about to receive food and bottled water from someone dressed in military apparel. “Greta Thunberg is currently on her way to Israel, safe and in good spirits,” the image was captioned.

Another person who was aboard the Madleen European Parliament member Rima Hassan of France, who posted to X late Monday morning that “the crew of the Freedom Flotilla has been unlawfully detained by Israel for more than 14 hours” since Israel commandeered the vessel.

Thunberg had released a video via her social media pages late Sunday that alleged “If you see this video, it means we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel.”

German citizen Yasemin Acar, also aboard the Madleen, posted a video of herself Sunday night to Instagram in an unspecified situation, but was wearing a life jacket and apparently had at least one arm raised behind her head as sirens wailed in the background and an amplified voice that seemingly said “Don’t be afraid” and “Stay where you are” in English could also be heard.”

The FFC posted a separate message to Instagram Sunday which purported that “drones dropped unidentified chemicals on the Madleen. Immediately after, our peaceful volunteers were rammed and intercepted before Israeli forces boarded the vessel. We lost all contact with them seconds later.” An updated post from the FFC Monday called out what it has described as an “illegal attack” by Israel on the Madleen.

It has been widely reported that the Madleen has been brought to Israel’s Port of Ashdod, and that Sweden’s foreign ministry has confirmed it is in touch with Israel over Thunberg, and will stand by should the need for consular assistance be required.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says authorities investigating whether family knew of planned ‘heinous attack’.

Federal officials in the United States have taken into custody the family of a man suspected of attacking a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado, over the weekend.

In a video on Tuesday, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that the family of Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“This terrorist will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Noem said in the video. “We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it.”

Police have accused the 45-year-old Soliman of throwing Molotov cocktails into a crowd that had gathered for an event organised by Run for Their Lives, a group calling for the release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.

According to an affidavit, Soliman yelled “Free Palestine” while hurling the incendiary devices.

The firebombs injured 12 people, three of whom remain hospitalised. Police have said Soliman planned the attack for more than a year. He is facing federal hate crime charges.

“When he was interviewed about the attack, he said he wanted them all to die, he had no regrets, and he would go back and do it again,” J Bishop Grewell, Colorado’s acting US attorney, said during a news conference Monday.

Soliman said that he acted alone and that nobody else knew of his plans. But officials with the administration of US President Donald Trump said they will investigate whether his wife and five children were aware of the suspect’s intentions.

Administration officials have also highlighted the fact that Soliman, an Egyptian national, was in the US on an expired tourist visa, tying his arrest — and that of his family — to a larger push against undocumented immigration.

“The United States has zero tolerance for foreign visitors who support terrorism,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.

“Under the Trump administration, aliens will only be admitted into the United States through the legal process and only if they do not bear hostile attitudes towards our citizens, our culture, our government, our institutions or, most importantly, our founding principles.”

Soliman’s family includes a wife and five children. The official White House account on the social media platform X indicated that they “could be deported by tonight”.

“Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids. Final Boarding Call Coming Soon,” Tuesday’s post read.

The attack comes amid rising tensions in the US over Israel’s continued war in Gaza, which United Nations experts and human rights groups have compared to a genocide. It also comes less than two weeks after the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees outside a Jewish museum in Washington, DC.

Jewish as well as Muslim and Arab communities have reported sharp upticks in harassment and violence since the war began.

Trump and his allies have used concerns about anti-Semitism as a pretext to push hardline policies on immigration and a crackdown on pro-Palestine activists.

“This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland,” Trump said in a social media post on Monday.

But the president and his supporters have themselves faced allegations of leaning into anti-Semitic rhetoric. And his administration’s push to expel foreign nationals has caused alarm among civil liberties groups.

The administration is currently attempting to deport several international students involved in pro-Palestine activity, including a Turkish graduate student named Rumeysa Ozturk.

Her legal team argues that Ozturk appears to have been arrested for co-signing an op-ed calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Ozturk was released from immigrant detention in May following a legal challenge, but she continues to face deportation proceedings.

McALLEN, Texas — The Trump administration is seeking to end an immigration policy cornerstone that since the 1990s has offered protections to child migrants in federal custody, a move that will be challenged by advocates, according to a court filing Thursday.

The protections in place, known as the Flores Settlement, largely limit to 72 hours the amount of time that child migrants traveling alone or with family are detained by the U.S. Border Patrol. They also ensure the children are kept in safe and sanitary conditions.

President Trump tried to end the protections during his first term and his allies have long railed against it. The court filing, submitted jointly by the administration and advocates, says the government plans to detail its arguments later Thursday and propose a hearing on July 18 before U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee.

The settlement is named for a Salvadoran girl, Jenny Flores, whose lawsuit alleging widespread mistreatment of children in custody in the 1980s prompted special oversight.

In August 2019, the first Trump administration asked a judge to dissolve the agreement. Its motion eventually was struck down in December 2020 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Under the Biden administration, oversight protections for child migrants were lifted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services after new guidelines were put in place last year.

The Department of Homeland Security is still beholden to the agreement, including Customs and Border Protection, which detains and processes children after their arrival in the U.S. with or without their parents. Children then are usually released with their families or sent to a shelter operated by Health and Human Services, though processing times often go up when the number of people entering increases in a short period.

Even with the agreement in place, there have been instances where the federal government failed to provide adequate conditions for children, as in a case in Texas where nearly 300 children had to be moved from a Border Patrol facility following reports they were receiving inadequate food, water and sanitation.

Court-appointed monitors provide oversight of the agreement and report noncompliant facilities to Gee. Customs and Border Protection was set to resume its own oversight, but in January a federal judge ruled it was not ready and extended the use of court-appointed monitors for another 18 months.

Gonzalez writes for the Associated Press.

May 21 (UPI) — Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot dead Wednesday night outside Washington’s Capital Jewish Museum where an event was being hosted by the American Jewish Committee, officials and authorities said.

“Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Department of Home Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on X.

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters in a press conference that one person, the suspected shooter from Chicago, is in custody.

Police were notified of shots fired at 9:08 p.m. EDT outside the museum near the intersection of 3rd and F. Street Northwest.

Officers found two people, a man and a woman later identified as Israeli embassy staff, unresponsive and suffering from gunshot wounds, injuries that they succumbed to, she said.

“A young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,” Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said. “They were a beautiful couple.”

Smith said the suspect was seen pacing back and forth outside the museum before approaching a group of four people, pulling out a handgun and shooting both victims.

Event security detained the suspect who then entered the museum, she said.

“The suspect chanted, ‘Free, free Palestine’ while in custody,” she said, identifying the suspect at 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser suggested the attack Was terrorism.

“We will not tolerate this violence or hate in our city,” she said. “We will not tolerate any acts of terrorism, and we’re going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send a clear message that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism.”

This is a developing story.

NEW YORK — Less than three weeks after his release from an immigration jail, the Palestinian activist Mohsen Mahdawi strode across the graduation stage at Columbia University on Monday morning, savoring a moment the Trump administration had fought to make impossible.

Draped in a keffiyeh, Mahdawi, 34, paused to listen to the swell of cheers from his fellow graduates. Then he joined a vigil just outside Columbia’s gates, raising a photograph of his classmate Mahmoud Khalil, who remains in federal custody.

“It’s very mixed emotions,” Mahdawi told The Associated Press. “The Trump administration wanted to rob me of this opportunity. They wanted me to be in a prison, in prison clothes, to not have education and to not have joy or celebration.”

Mahdawi, a 34-year-old legal resident of the U.S., was detained during an April 14 citizenship interview in Vermont, part of the widening federal crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.

He was released two weeks later by a judge, who likened the government’s actions to McCarthyist repression. Federal officials have not accused Mahdawi of committing a crime but argued that he and other student activists should be deported for beliefs that may undermine U.S. foreign policy.

For Mahdawi, who earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Columbia’s School of General Studies, the graduation marked a bittersweet return to a university that he says has betrayed him and other students.

“The senior administration is selling the soul of this university to the Trump administration, participating in the destruction and the degradation of our democracy,” Mahdawi said.

He pointed to Columbia’s decision to acquiesce to the Trump administration’s demands — including placing its Middle Eastern studies department under new leadership — as well as its failure to speak out against his and Khalil’s arrest.

He said Columbia’s leadership had denied his pleas for protection prior to his arrest, then ignored his attorney’s request for a letter supporting his release from jail.

A spokesperson for Columbia University did not return an emailed inquiry.

Mahdawi was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests, led a Buddhist association and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Khalil.

Khalil would have received his diploma from a Columbia master’s program in international studies later this week. He remains jailed in Louisiana as he awaits a decision from a federal judge about his possible release.

As he prepares for a lengthy legal battle, Mahdawi faces his own uncertain future. He was previously admitted to a master’s degree program at Columbia, where he planned to study “peacekeeping and conflict resolution” in the fall. But he is reconsidering his options after learning this month that he would not receive financial aid.

For now, he said, he would continue to advocate for the Palestinian cause, buoyed by the support he says he has received from the larger Columbia community.

“When I went on the stage, the message was very clear and loud: They are cheering up for the idea of justice, for the idea of peace, for the idea of equality, for the idea of humanity, and nothing will stop us from continuing to do that. Not the Trump administration nor Columbia University,” he said.

The School of General Studies graduation comes two days before Columbia’s university-wide commencement, as colleges across the country are bracing for possible disruptions.

Last week, New York University announced it would withhold the diploma of a student speaker who criticized Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in his graduation speech.

Offenhartz writes for the Associated Press.

R&B singer Chris Brown has been remanded in custody after appearing in court charged over an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub.

The American singer was arrested at Manchester’s Lowry Hotel on Thursday and later charged over the alleged assault, which is said to have happened at the Tape club in London’s Mayfair in 2023.

Brown, 36, is alleged to have used a bottle to cause grievous bodily harm to music producer Abe Diaw.

The singer was in Manchester ahead of his planned tour of the UK in June and July, with dates at the city’s Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

During the hearing, Brown, who was wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a plain t-shirt, spoke to confirm his full name as Christopher Maurice Brown and date of birth.

When asked to confirm his address he said The Lowry Hotel.

District Judge Joanne Hirst told Brown the case will be moved to Southwark Crown Court in London with the next hearing to be held on 13 June.

She said the nature of the offence of grievous bodily harm was too serious to to be dealt with by a magistrates’ court.

Fans gathered outside Manchester Magistrates’ Court ahead of the hearing.

One fan, who lives in Manchester, told the BBC she had cancelled her plans so she could spend the day outside court.

Candy, 35, said she has followed the star since she was 14 and when she heard the news of his arrest she could not sleep.

“I’m just here to support him,” she said.

“I love his music, his voice. Even my children are fans now.”

Washington, DC – A federal judge has ordered Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri released from immigration detention, in the latest victory for US visa holders targeted by the administration of President Donald Trump for pro-Palestine stances or advocacy.

The ruling on Wednesday by US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles comes shortly after two other prominent students targeted for deportation, Columbia University Student Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, were ordered released from detention as their deportation cases move forward.

Speaking at a news conference following the hearing at the federal court in Arlington, Virginia, Khan Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, thanked supporters who demonstrated outside of the facility.

“I thank everyone who came out to support the cause of a truth-telling, speaking up and standing for Palestinian rights,” said Saleh, who is Palestinian American.

As with similar cases where visa holders have been targeted for deportation related to their pro-Palestine views and advocacy, lawyers for Suri Khan – who has Indian citizenship and a US student visa – argued ICE agents unlawfully detained him outside his Virginia home in March for speech that should have been constitutionally protected.

The Trump administration has taken the broad position that those constitutional protections do not apply to temporary visa holders or even US permanent residents. The question will likely eventually be decided by the US Supreme Court.

The administration has further relied on the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify its actions. An obscure provision of the law allows the US secretary of state to deport any non-citizen deemed to have “potentially serious adverse foreign consequences”.

In a separate ruling related to Columbia University Student Mahmoud Kahlil in April, a federal judge adopted a broad interpretation of the provision, saying Kahlil was deportable based on Rubio’s claims he took part in “anti-Semitic” protests. That came despite the top US diplomat providing no further evidence.

Similarly, the Department of Homeland Security had previously claimed in a post on X that Khan Suri was “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”.

It added he “was married to the daughter of a senior advisor for to Hamas terrorist group”.

But speaking to reporters, Nermeen Arastu, one of the lawyers representing Khan Suri, noted that evidence backing up those claims has not been presented by government lawyers in court.

Arastu, who is also an associate professor of law at the CUNY School of Law, said it was notable that “the court today also pointed out that the government is kind of throwing around accusations in social media, but not presenting them in the formal courtroom setting”.

“And tied that to this due process concept that’s so important here to understand – that at the very basic level, you have a right to understand the allegations that are being brought against you,” she said.

‘Badge of honour’

Critics have further accused the Trump administration of targeting Khan Suri based on his familial ties. His wife is the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh who left his position with the armed group more than a decade ago.

“He should have never been arrested and jailed for his constitutionally protected speech just because the government disagrees with him,” ACLU of Virginia senior immigrants’ rights lawyer Sophia Gregg, told reporters on Wednesday.

“He should have never been punished for his relationship with his wife or his father-in-law,” she said.

Like in the cases of Ozturk and Mahdawi, Khan Suri’s cases will proceed despite his release. He faces two separate legal proceedings, one in immigration court in the one challenging his arrest and detention in Virginia.

He remained in detention in Texas when the ruling was issued on Wednesday, his lawyers said, adding they were expecting him to be released shortly.

Saleh said at the court that she had recently spoken to her husband from the detention centre in Texas, where he was held.

“He told me if my suffering in the detention centre is because I married a Palestinian and because I spoke out against the genocide in Gaza, then I should wear it as a badge of honour,” she said.

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

May 14 (UPI) — U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of Indian national and Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri. He had been held by ICE for two months despite not having been charged with a crime.

Suri was in the United States on an academic visa. He was arrested March 17 by masked ICE agents and sent to a Texas detention immigration detention facility.

Judge Giles ordered Suri released without bond on condition that he maintain a residence in Virginia and attend hearings in his case in person. For Texas immigration hearings, Suri can attend virtually.

The judge said at Suri’s hearing his release is “in the public interest to disrupt the chilling effect on protected speech.”

Suri’s defense lawyers alleged he was singled out for revocation of his visa and deportation “based on his family connections and constitutionally protected speech.”

Suri has not been charged with a crime. He was taken by ICE for his social media posts supporting Palestinians.

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin cited the posts as she claimed without including concrete evidence that Suri allegedly had connections to a senior adviser of Hamas.

Suri said in an April statement that he had “never even been to a protest.”

His release petition argued that he was likely targeted by the Trump administration due to his marriage to a U.S. citizen of Palestinian origin.

Also, Suri’s father-in-law Ahmed Yousef was an adviser to Hamas over a decade ago.

Giles ruled in March that Suri “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the court issues a contrary order.”

Suri’s release order follows court-ordered releases from ICE custody of fellow immigrant academics Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University Palestinian student, and Tufts University student Rumseya Ozturk.

Attorneys representing Suri said during his detention he was transferred to five different facilities across three states. They said he at one point slept in a room with no bed and a TV blaring almost all day for nearly two weeks.

In a letter to his lawyers, Suri wrote, “My only ‘crimes’ making me a ‘national security threat’ are my marriage to a United States citizen of Palestinian origin and my support for the Palestinian cause.”