Nov. 4 (UPI) — Two male suspects were arrested Tuesday morning for allegedly setting off an explosive device inside a Harvard Medical School building early Saturday morning.
The two suspects are Logan David Patterson, 18, of Plymouth, Mass., and Dominick Frank Cardoza, 20, of Bourne, Mass., each of whom is accused of conspiring to damage, by means of an explosive, the Harvard Medical School Goldenson Building at 220 Longwood Ave. in Boston, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
FBI special agent Erin O’Brien submitted a criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in which she says there is probable cause that Patterson and Cardoza conspired to damage by fire or explosive device a building owned by an institution that receives federal financial assistance and is used in interstate commerce or in any activity affecting interstate commerce.
O’Brien said surveillance cameras at the intersection of Huntington and Longwood avenues at 2:23 a.m. EDT Saturday recorded two people walking toward the HMS campus.
One was wearing a blue/gray balaclava, a “distinctive” brown sweatshirt, tan sweatpants and white Crocs, while the other wore a blue mask, dark hooded jacket, dark plaid pajama pants and black sneakers.
Surveillance video also shows them lighting what appears to be a Roman candle firework at 2:24 a.m. before video from another camera shows them climbing over a chain-link fence and entering a construction area surrounding the Goldenson Building.
They climbed scaffolding next to the Goldenson Building to access its roof at 2:36 a.m., and Harvard University Police responded to a fire alarm on the building’s fourth floor at about 2:45 a.m.
The suspects exited the building via its first-floor emergency exit that leads to a courtyard, where each fled on foot in opposite directions, O’Brien said.
Harvard police found evidence of an explosive device detonating inside a wooden locker in the building’s fourth-floor research lab, which an FBI bomb technician said likely was a large commercial firework after inspecting its remains.
Soon after the alarm alerted police, a surveillance camera recorded one of the suspects removing clothing while sitting on a bench and depositing them in a garbage bin near Longwood Avenue and Autumn Street.
Footage recorded by a security camera at the Wentworth Institute of Technology, which is near the Goldenson Building, shows the other suspect on the campus at 3:09 a.m., entering a residential campus building and charging his phone and then using it to talk to someone at 3:23 a.m.
That suspect had removed his brown sweatshirt and tan pants and left the building soon after, met the other suspect and another individual, and the three walked to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design campus at 3:49 a.m., according to O’Brien.
Several Wentworth students identified Patterson and Cardoza as the suspects and said Patterson told them of his participation in the incident.
The witnesses said the pair told them that they allegedly placed an explosive cherry bomb firework in a locker and shut it before it exploded.
O’Brien said images of the two suspects match those that are posted on social media and that are maintained by the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Each faces up to five years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine if convicted of conspiring to damage the university building.
An arraignment hearing for each suspect had not been scheduled as of Tuesday afternoon.
Nov. 3 (UPI) — The Justice Department announced Monday that “multiple suspects” have been charged in Michigan in an alleged Halloween plot to support the terror group ISIS in an “attack on American soil.”
Monday’s charges come three days after Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Kash Patel announced that the FBI had “stopped a potential terrorist attack in Michigan before it could unfold.”
“Thanks to swift action and coordination with our partners, a violent plot tied to international terrorism was disrupted,” he said Friday.
On Monday, Patel provided more details.
“Two Michigan men planned an ISIS-inspired Halloween terror attack near Detroit — stockpiling weapons, scouting targets and training at gun ranges,” Patel wrote in a second post on X. “This FBI acted fast, followed the evidence, and likely saved countless lives.”
According to a Justice Department press release Monday, FBI agents made the arrests Friday in eastern Michigan.
“This newly unsealed complaint reveals a major ISIS-linked terror plot with multiple suspects arrested in the Eastern District of Michigan targeting the United States,” said U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. “According to the complaint, subjects had multiple AR-15 rifles, tactical gear and a detailed plan to carry out an attack on American soil.”
No information was provided on the identity of the suspects, as the FBI called the investigation “ongoing.”
“With today’s unsealed criminal complaint, the American people can see the results of months of tireless investigative work where the FBI acted quickly and likely saved many lives,” Patel added. “We’ll continue to follow the facts, uphold the law and deliver justice for the American people.”
The special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office credited local authorities for their work to “ensure the safety of the citizens of Michigan and beyond.”
“Defending the homeland will always be one of our top priorities,” said Special Agent Jennifer Runyan. “We will utilize every available federal resource to disrupt and dismantle any individuals or groups who threaten national security.”
Forensic teams work at the scene at Huntington railway station where a London bound train stopped after several people were stabbed in Huntington, Britain, on Sunday, November 2, 2025. Photo by Tayfun Salci/EPA
Nov. 3 (UPI) — One of two suspects arrested at the scene of the weekend’s mass stabbing on a British train has been released, according to British authorities who continue to investigate.
Eleven people were injured in the Saturday evening attack on a train in Cambridgeshire, located about 37 miles north of London.
Two people — a 32-year-old man and a 35-year-old man — were apprehended at the scene.
In a statement Sunday night, British Transport Police said the 35-year-old man has been released, with no further action required.
“It was reported in good faith to officers responding to the incident that he was involved in the attack, and following enquiries we can confirm that he was not involved,” authorities said.
The 32-year-old, who’s been described as a Black British national, remains in police custody on suspicion of attempted murder.
Police on Sunday night identified him as a Peterborough resident.
Authorities were notified of the stabbing at 7:42 p.m. local time Saturday on the train from Doncaster to London King’s Cross. The 32-year-old suspect is believed to have entered the train at the Peterborough station.
A knife was recovered from the scene.
Ten people were transferred by ambulance to the hospital while an 11th victim arrived later on their own.
Five of the victims have since been discharged, according to authorities that said of the six remaining hospitalized, one is in life-threatening condition.
Authorities identified the most severely injured victim as a member of the London North Eastern Railway.
Following a review of surveillance footage, authorities believe that if it were not for his actions, more people would have died.
“The actions of the member of rail staff were nothing short of heroic and undoubtedly saved people’s lives,” Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy said, though it was not clear what actions the employee took that saved lives.
David Horne, managing director of LNER, said the attack was “deeply upsetting” and that over the coming days they will continue to cooperate with authorities on their investigation.
In a statement on X, LNER said it expects to run a normal service on Monday.
The incident occurred just days after the British government announced it had seized a record number of knives — nearly 60,000 — from England and Wales through its new knife surrender scheme.
Knife homicides in Britain have fallen by nearly 20% while knife crime overall has dropped for the first time in four years, according to government statistics.
Forensic teams work at the scene at Huntingdon railway station, where a London-bound train stopped after several people were stabbed. Photo by Tayfun Salci/EPA
Nov. 2 (UPI) — Two suspects have been arrested in Saturday night’s mass stabbing incident on a British train, police said Sunday, while dismissing concerns it was a terror attack.
Officers were called at 7:42 p.m. local time Saturday to respond to reports of multiple people stabbed on board the 6.25 p.m. train from Doncaster to London King’s Cross station, British Transport Police said in a statement.
The train was forced to stop in the small town of Huntingdon, where police and paramedics boarded the train.
The two suspects were arrested within eight minutes of the first 911 call, police said.
Police described the suspects as a 32-year-old Black man and a 35-year-old man of Caribbean descent, both of whom were natural-born British nationals.
They have been detained on suspicion of attempted murder and remain in custody for questioning.
In total, paramedics took ten people by ambulance to a local hospital and another later self-presented. Four victims have been discharged but two people remain in life-threatening condition.
Witnesses described seeing bloody handprints as panic spread through the train cars in comments to The Guardian.
“We declared a major incident yesterday and Counter Terrorism Policing were initially supporting our investigation however at this stage there is nothing to suggest this is a terrorist incident,” police superintendent John Loveless said. “This is a British Transport Police investigation.”
Loveless’ comments came after British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood urged people not to speculate about the attack.
The train station in Huntingdon remains closed and police said riders can see increased police presence throughout the train service on Sunday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the stabbing an “appalling incident” and “deeply concerning” in a statement on social media, while former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it happened on a line he uses regularly.
“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” Starmer said. “Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police.”
Police say a number of people were taken to hospital after a series of stabbings on a train near Cambridgeshire.
Police in the United Kingdom have arrested two suspects after several people were taken to hospital following a stabbing on a train near Cambridgeshire in eastern England.
“We are currently responding to an incident on a train to Huntingdon where multiple people have been stabbed,” the British Transport Police said in a statement on X on Saturday.
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“Two people have been arrested,” it said.
Cambridgeshire police issued a separate statement, saying they were called at 19:39 GMT after reports that multiple people had been stabbed on a train.
“Armed officers attended and the train was stopped at Huntingdon, where two men were arrested. A number of people have been taken to hospital,” the police said.
The East of England Ambulance Service said it mobilised a large-scale response to Huntingdon Railway Station, which included numerous ambulances and critical care teams, including three air ambulances.
“We can confirm we have transported multiple patients to hospital,” it said.
One witness described seeing a man with a large knife, and told The Times newspaper there was “blood everywhere” as people hid in the washrooms.
Some passengers were getting “stamped [on] by others” as they tried to run, and the witness told The Times that they “heard some people shouting we love [you]”.
Another witness told Sky News that one of the suspects was tasered by police.
The appalling incident on a train near Huntingdon is deeply concerning.
My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response.
Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the “appalling” incident was “deeply concerning”.
“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” Starmer said in a statement on X.
“Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police,” Starmer added.
London North Eastern Railway, or LNER, which operates the East Coast Mainline services in the UK, confirmed the incident had happened on one of its trains and said all its railway lines had been closed while emergency services dealt with the incident at Huntingdon station.
LNER, which runs trains along the east of England and Scotland, urged passengers not to travel, warning of “major disruption”.
It serves major stops, including in London, Peterborough, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh, and trains are often very busy and packed with travellers.
The mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Paul Bristow, said in a post on X, “Hearing reports of horrendous scenes on a train in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire”, and added that his “thoughts are with everyone affected”.
Knife crime in England and Wales has been steadily rising since 2011, according to official government data.
While the UK has some of the strictest gun controls in the world, rampant knife crime has been branded a “national crisis” by Starmer.
His Labour government has tried to rein in their use.
Nearly 60,000 blades have been either “seized or surrendered” in England and Wales as part of government efforts to halve knife crime within a decade, the Home Office said on Wednesday.
Carrying a knife in public can already get you up to four years in prison, and the government said knife murders had dropped by 18 percent in the last year.
Two people were killed – one as a result of misdirected police gunfire – and others were wounded in a stabbing spree at a synagogue in Manchester at the start of October, an attack that shook the local Jewish community and the country.
Both suspects, who were arrested earlier this week, have denied involvement in stealing priceless Napoleonic-era jewellery that remains missing.
The Paris prosecutor says two more people have been handed preliminary charges for their alleged involvement in a recent jewel heist at France’s Louvre Museum, days after they were arrested by Paris police as part of a sweeping probe.
Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement on Saturday that a 37-year-old suspect was charged with theft by an organised gang and criminal conspiracy, while the other, a 38-year-old woman, is accused of being an accomplice.
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Both have been incarcerated and both denied involvement, said Beccuau.
The male suspect has been placed in pre-trial detention pending a hearing to take place in the coming days, said the prosecutor, adding that he had been known to the judicial authorities for previous theft offences.
Beccuau justified the detention of the woman, who lives in the French capital’s northern suburb of La Courneuve, on the grounds of a “risk of collusion” and “disturbance of public order”.
The woman’s lawyer, Adrien Sorrentino, told reporters his client is “devastated” because she disputes the accusations.
“She does not understand how she is implicated in any of the elements she is accused of,” he said.
Five people were arrested by Paris police on Wednesday in connection with the case, including one who was identified by his DNA at the crime scene. Three of them have been released without charges, Beccuau said. Seven people have been arrested in total.
Last month, thieves wielding power tools raided the Louvre, the world’s most visited art museum, in broad daylight, taking just seven minutes to steal jewellery worth an estimated $102m.
French authorities initially announced the arrest of two male suspects over the Louvre robbery.
The two men were charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after “partially admitting to the charges”, Beccuau said this week.
They are suspected of being the two who broke into the gallery while two accomplices waited outside.
Both lived in the northeastern Paris suburb of Aubervilliers.
One is a 34-year-old Algerian national living in France, who was identified by DNA traces found on one of the scooters used to flee the heist. The second man is a 39-year-old unlicensed taxi driver.
Both were known to the police for having committed thefts.
The first was arrested as he was about to board a plane for Algeria at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
The second was apprehended shortly after near his home, and there was no evidence to suggest that he was planning to go abroad, prosecutors said.
The stolen loot remains missing.
The thieves dropped a diamond- and emerald-studded crown that once belonged to Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, as they escaped.
The burglars made off with eight other items of jewellery.
Among them are an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon I gave his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem that once belonged to the Empress Eugenie, which is dotted with nearly 2,000 diamonds.
Last week, the Louvre director told the French Senate the museum’s security operations “did not detect the arrival of the thieves soon enough”.
“Today we are experiencing a terrible failure at the Louvre, which I take my share of responsibility in,” the director said, adding that she submitted her resignation to Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who turned it down.
PARIS — Two suspects in the Louvre jewel heist on Wednesday were handed preliminary charges of criminal conspiracy and theft committed by an organized gang, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor said they admitted their involvement.
Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said at a news conference that the two are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world’s most visited museum Oct. 19, and that at least two other accomplices are at large. The jewels remain missing.
The two were given preliminary charges and ordered held in custody pending further investigation, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
They have “partially” admitted their participation in the robbery, Beccuau said. She declined to provide details about the suspects’ statements to investigators because accomplices were still being sought.
It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at $102 million on Oct. 19, shocking the world. The robbers forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.
Suspects’ DNA was found
The two men arrested on Saturday night “are suspected of being the ones who broke into the Apollo Gallery to steal the jewels,” Beccuau said.
One is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said. He was arrested at Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket. He was living in a suburb north of Paris, Aubervilliers, and was known to police mostly for road traffic offenses. His DNA was found on one of the scooters used by robbers to leave the scene, she said.
The other suspect, 39, was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers. “There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country,” Beccuau said. The man was known to police for several thefts, and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the thieves left behind, she added.
Video surveillance cameras showed there were at least four criminals involved, Beccuau said.
The four suspected robbers arrived onboard a truck equipped with a freight lift that two of them used to climb up to the museum’s window. The four left on two motor scooters along the Seine River toward eastern Paris, where they had some other vehicles parked, she said.
Beccuau said nothing suggests that the robbers had any accomplices within the museum’s staff.
The jewels are still missing
The jewels have not been recovered, Beccuau said.
“These jewels are now, of course, unsellable … Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods,” she warned. “There’s still time to give them back.”
Earlier Wednesday, French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defenses — turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.
Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that aging systems and slow-moving fixes left weak seams in the museum.
“A technological step has not been taken,” he said, noting that parts of the video network are still analog, producing lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.
A long-promised revamp — a $93-million project requiring roughly 37 miles of new cabling — “will not be finished before 2029-2030,” he said.
Faure also disclosed that the Louvre’s authorization to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and wasn’t renewed — a paperwork lapse that some see as a symbol of broader negligence.
The police chief said officers “arrived extremely fast” after the theft, but added the lag in response occurred earlier in the chain — from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.
Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre’s alarms but from a cyclist outside who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.
Faure urged lawmakers to authorize tools currently off-limits: AI-based anomaly detection and object tracking (not facial recognition) to flag suspicious movements and follow scooters or gear across city cameras in real time.
Former bank robber David Desclos has told the AP the theft was textbook and vulnerabilities were glaringly obvious in the layout of the gallery.
Museum and culture officials under pressure
Culture Minister Rachida Dati, under pressure, has refused the Louvre director’s resignation and insisted that alarms worked, while acknowledging “security gaps did exist.”
The museum was already under strain. In June, the Louvre shut in a spontaneous staff strike — including security agents — over unmanageable crowds, chronic understaffing and “untenable” conditions. Unions say mass tourism and construction pinch points create blind spots, a vulnerability underscored by the thieves who rolled a basket lift to the Seine-facing façade.
Faure said police will now track surveillance-permit deadlines across institutions to prevent repeats of the July lapse. But he stressed the larger fix is disruptive and slow: ripping out and rebuilding core systems while the palace stays open, and updating the law so police can act on suspicious movement in real time.
Experts fear that the stolen pieces may already be broken down and stones recut to erase their past.
Adamson and Corbet write for the Associated Press.
The suspects face charges for theft committed by an organised gang and criminal conspiracy, prosecutor says.
Two men arrested over a jewel heist at France’s Louvre Museum are to be charged with theft and criminal conspiracy after “partially admitting to the charges”, Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau has said.
The suspects were to be brought before magistrates with a view to “charging them with organised theft, which carries a 15-year prison sentence”, and criminal conspiracy, punishable by 10 years, Beccuau told a press conference on Wednesday. The jewellery stolen on October 19 has “not yet been recovered”, Beccuau said.
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Two suspects in the Louvre jewel heist have “partially” admitted their participation and are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world’s most visited museum, a Paris prosecutor said.
Beccuau said that the two suspects face preliminary charges of theft committed by an organised gang and criminal conspiracy, and are expected to be held in provisional detention. She did not give details about their comments.
It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102m), shocking the world. The thieves forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools, and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.
One suspect is a 34-year-old Algerian national who has been living in France since 2010, Beccuau said. He was arrested Saturday night at Charles de Gaulle Airport as he was about to fly to Algeria with no return ticket. He was living in Paris’s northern suburb of Aubervilliers and was known to police mostly for road traffic offences, Beccuau said.
The other suspect, 39, was arrested Saturday night at his home, also in Aubervilliers.
“There is no evidence to suggest that he was about to leave the country,” Beccuau said. The man was known to police for several thefts, and his DNA was found on one of the glass cases where the jewels were displayed and on items the thieves left behind, she added.
Prosecutors had faced a late Wednesday deadline to charge the suspects, release them or seek a judge’s extension.
Jewels not yet recovered
The jewels have not been recovered, Beccuau said.
“These jewels are now, of course, unsellable … Anyone who buys them would be guilty of concealment of stolen goods,” she warned. “It’s still time to give them back.”
Earlier Wednesday, French police acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s defences – turning the dazzling daylight theft into a national reckoning over how France protects its treasures.
Paris Police Chief Patrice Faure told Senate lawmakers that ageing systems and slow-moving fixes left weak seams in the museum.
“A technological step has not been taken,” he said, noting that parts of the video network are still analog, producing lower-quality images that are slow to share in real time.
A long-promised revamp “will not be finished before 2029–2030”, he said.
Faure also disclosed that the Louvre’s authorisation to operate its security cameras quietly expired in July and wasn’t renewed – a paperwork lapse that some see as a symbol of broader negligence.
The police chief said officers “arrived extremely fast” after the theft, but added the lag in response occurred earlier in the chain – from first detection, to museum security, to the emergency line, to police command.
Faure and his team said the first alert to police came not from the Louvre’s alarms, but from a cyclist outside who dialed the emergency line after seeing helmeted men with a basket lift.
Within 24 hours of the Louvre heist, a museum in eastern France reported the theft of gold and silver coins after finding a smashed display case.
Last month, thieves broke into Paris’s Natural History Museum and stole gold nuggets worth more than $1.5m. A Chinese woman has been detained and charged in relation to the theft.
Wives and children of suspected Islamic State group fighters are detained in tented camps
In the complex mosaic of the new Syria, the old battle against the group calling itself Islamic State (IS) continues in the Kurdish-controlled north-east. It’s a conflict that has slipped from the headlines – with bigger wars elsewhere.
But Kurdish counter-terrorism officials have told the BBC that IS cells in Syria are regrouping and increasing their attacks.
Walid Abdul-Basit Sheikh Mousa was obsessed with motorbikes and finally managed to buy one in January.
The 21-year-old only had a few weeks to enjoy it. He was killed in February fighting against IS in north-eastern Syria.
Walid was so keen to take on the extremists that he ran away from home, aged 15, to join the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). They brought him back because he was a minor, but accepted him three years later.
Generations of his extended family gathered in the yard of their home in the city of Qamishli to tell us about his short life.
“I see him everywhere,” said his mother, Rojin Mohammed. “He left me with so many memories. He was very caring and affectionate.”
Walid was one of eight children, and the youngest of the boys. He could always get around his mum.
“When he wanted something, he would come and kiss me,” she recalls. “And say ‘can you give me money so I can buy cigarettes?'”
The young fighter was killed during days of battle near a strategic dam – his body found by his cousin who searched the front lines. Through tears, his mother calls for revenge against IS.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Walid was killed in February fighting against the Islamic State Group in north-eastern Syria
“They broke our hearts,” she says. “We buried so many of our young. May Daesh (IS) be wiped out completely,” she says. “I hope not one of them is left.”
Instead, the Islamic State Group is recruiting and reorganising – according to Kurdish officials, taking advantage of a security vacuum after the ousting of Syria’s long-time dictator Bashar al-Assad last December.
“There’s been a 10-fold increase in their attacks,” says Siyamend Ali, a spokesman for the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – a Kurdish militia, which has been fighting IS for over a decade, and is the backbone of the SDF.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
“I see him everywhere,” says Walid’s mother, Rojin Mohammed
“They benefited from the chaos and got a lot of weapons from warehouses and depots (of the old regime).”
He says the militants have expanded their areas of operation and methods of attack. They have graduated from hit-and-run operations to attacking checkpoints and planting landmines.
His office walls are lined with photos of YPG members killed by IS.
For the US, the YPG militia is a valued ally in the fight against the extremists. For Turkey, it is a terrorist group.
In the past year, 30 YPG fighters have been killed in operations against IS, according to Mr Ali, and 95 IS militants have been captured.
Kurdish authorities have their hands – and jails – full with suspected IS fighters. Around 8,000 – from 48 countries including the UK, the US, Russia and Australia – have been held for years in a network of prisons in the north east.
Whatever their guilt – or innocence – they have not been tried or convicted.
The largest jail for IS suspects is al-Sina in the city of Al Hasakah – ringed by high walls, and watch towers.
Through a small hatch in a cell door, we get a glimpse of men who once brought terror to around a third of Syria and Iraq.
Detainees in brown uniforms – with shaven heads – sit silent and motionless on thin mattresses, on opposite sides of a cell. They appear thin, weak and vanquished, like the “caliphate” they proclaimed in 2014. Prison officials say these men were with IS until its last stand in the Syrian town of Baghouz in March 2019.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Al-Sina, located in the city of Hasaka, is the largest jail for IS suspects
Some detainees wear disposable masks to prevent the spread of infection. Tuberculosis is their companion in al-Sina, where they are being held indefinitely.
There’s no TV or radio, no internet or phone, and no knowledge that Assad was toppled by the former Islamist militant, Ahmed al-Sharaa. At least that’s what the prison authorities hope.
But IS is rebuilding itself behind bars, according to a prison commander who cannot be identified for security reasons. He says each wing of the prison has an emir, or leader, who issues fatwas – rulings on points of Islamic law.
“The leaders still have influence,” he said. “And give orders and Sharia lessons.”
One of the detainees, Hamza Parvez from London, agreed to speak to us with prison guards listening in.
The former trainee accountant admits becoming an IS fighter in early 2014 at the age of 21. It cost him his citizenship. When challenged about IS atrocities including beheadings, he says a lot of “unfortunate” things happened.
“A lot of stuff happened that I don’t agree with,” he said. “And there was some stuff that I did agree with. I wasn’t in charge. I was a normal soldier.”
He says his life is now at risk. “I’m on my deathbed… in a room full of tuberculosis,” he said. “At any moment I could die.”
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Hamza Parvez, from London, admits he became an IS fighter at 21
After years in jail, Parvez is pleading to be returned to the UK.
“Me and the rest of the British citizens who are here in the prison, we don’t wish any harm,” he said. “We did what we did, yes. We did come. We did join the Islamic State. It’s not something that we can hide.”
I ask how people can accept he is no longer a threat.
“They are going to have to take my word for it,” he says with a laugh.
“It’s something that I can’t convince people about. It’s a huge risk that they will have to take to bring us back. It’s true.”
Britain, like many countries, is in no hurry to do that.
So the Kurds are left holding the fighters and about 34,000 of their family members.
The wives and children are arbitrarily detained in sprawling desolate tented camps that amount to open-air prisons. Human rights groups say this is collective punishment – a war crime.
Roj camp sits on the edge of the Syrian desert – whipped by the wind, and scorched by the sun.
It’s a place Londoner Mehak Aslam is keen to escape. She comes to meet us in the manager’s office – a slight veiled figure, wearing a face mask and walking with a limp. She says she was beaten by Kurdish forces years ago and injured by a fragment of a bullet.
After agreeing to an interview, she speaks at length.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
Kurdish troops patrol the area around the camps where IS detainees are held
Aslam says she came to Syria with her Bengali husband, Shahan Chaudhary, just “to bring aid”, and claims they made a living by “baking cakes”. He is now in al-Sina prison, and they have both been stripped of their citizenships.
The mother-of-four denies joining IS but admits bringing her children to its territory, where her eldest daughter was killed by an explosion.
“I lost her in Baghouz. It was an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade] or a small bomb. She broke her leg, and she was pierced with shrapnel from her back. She died in my arms,” she says, in a low voice.
She told me her children had developed health problems in the camp, including her youngest, who is eight. But she admits turning down an offer for them to be returned to the UK. She says they didn’t want to go without her.
“Unfortunately, my children have pretty much grown up just in the camp,” she said. “They don’t know a world outside. Two of my children were born in Syria, they have never seen Britain, and going to family who again they don’t know, it would be very difficult. No mother should have to make the choice of being separated from her children.”
But I put it to her that she had made other choices like coming to the caliphate where IS was killing civilians, raping and enslaving Yazidi women, and throwing people from buildings.
“I wasn’t aware of the Yazidi thing at the time,” she said, “or that people were being thrown from buildings. We did not witness any of that. We knew they were very extreme.”
She said she was at risk inside the camp because it is known that she would like to go back to Britain.
“I have already been targeted as an apostate, and that’s in my community. My kids have had rocks thrown at them at school.”
I asked if she would like to see a return of an IS caliphate.
“Sometimes things are distorted,” she said. “I don’t’ believe what we saw was a true representation, Islamically speaking.”
After an hour-long interview, she returned to her tent, with no indication that she would ever leave the camp.
The camp manager, Hekmiya Ibrahim, says there are nine British families in Roj – among them 12 children. And, she adds, 75% of those in the camp still cling to the ideology of IS.
There are worse places than Roj.
The atmosphere is far more tense in al-Hol – a more radicalised camp where about 6,000 foreigners are being held.
We were given an armed escort to enter their section of the camp.
As we walked in – carefully – the sound of banging echoed through the area. Guards said it was a signal that outsiders had arrived and warned us we might be attacked.
Goktay Koraltan/BBC
About 6,000 foreigners are being held in al-Hol camp
Veiled women – clad head to toe in black – soon gathered. One responded to my questions by running a finger across her neck – as if slitting a throat.
Several small children raised an index finger – a gesture traditionally associated with Muslim prayer but hijacked by IS. We kept our visit short.
The SDF patrol outside the camp and in the surrounding areas.
We joined them – bumping along desert tracks.
“Sleeper cells are everywhere,” said one of the commanders.
In recent months, they have been focused on trying to break boys out of the camp, “trying to free the cubs of the caliphate”, he added. Most attempts are prevented, but not all.
A new generation is being raised – inside the razor wire – inheriting the brutal legacy of the IS.
“We are worried about the children,” said Hekmiya Ibrahim back in Roj camp.
“We feel bad when we see them growing up in this swamp and embracing this ideology.”
Due to their early indoctrination, she believes they will be even more hardline than their fathers.
“They are the seeds for a new version of IS,” she said. “Even more powerful than the previous one.”
Additional reporting by Wietske Burema, Goktay Koraltan and Fahad Fattah
PARIS — At least two suspects have been arrested in connection with the theft of crown jewels from Paris’ Louvre Museum, the Paris prosecutor said Sunday, a week after the heist that stunned the world.
The prosecutor said that investigators made the arrests Saturday evening, adding that one of the men taken into custody was preparing to leave the country from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
France’s BFM TV and Le Parisien newspaper earlier reported that two suspects had been arrested and taken into custody. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau did not confirm the number of arrests and did not say whether any jewels had been recovered.
Thieves took less than eight minutes Oct. 19 to steal jewels valued at more than $100 million from the world’s most-visited museum. French officials described how the intruders used a basket lift to scale the Louvre’s facade, forced open a window, smashed display cases and fled. The museum’s director called the incident a “terrible failure.”
Beccuau said investigators from a special police unit in charge of armed robberies, serious burglaries and art thefts made the arrests. In her statement, she rued the leak of information, saying it could hinder the work of more than 100 investigators “mobilized to recover the stolen jewels and apprehend all of the perpetrators.” Beccuau said further details will be unveiled after the suspects’ custody period ends.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez praised “the investigators who have worked tirelessly, just as I asked them to, and who have always had my full confidence.”
The Louvre reopened last week after one of the highest-profile museum thefts of the century stunned the world with its audacity and scale.
The thieves slipped in and out while museum patrons were inside, making off with some of France’s crown jewels — a cultural wound that some compared with the burning of Notre Dame Cathedral in 2019.
The thieves escaped with eight objects, including a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a set linked to 19th century queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense.
They also took an emerald necklace and earrings tied to Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife, as well as a reliquary brooch. Empress Eugénie’s diamond diadem and her large corsage-bow brooch — an imperial ensemble of rare craftsmanship — were also part of the loot.
One piece — Eugénie’s emerald-set imperial crown with more than 1,300 diamonds — was later found outside the museum, damaged but repairable.
News of the arrests was met with relief by Louvre visitors and passersby on Sunday.
“It’s important for our heritage. A week later, it does feel a bit late; we wonder how this could even happen — but it was important that the guys were caught,” said Freddy Jacquemet.
“I think the main thing now is whether they can recover the jewels,” added Diana Ramirez. “That’s what really matters.”
Petrequin and Garriga write for the Associated Press and reported from London and Paris, respectively.
French authorities have detained several men in connection to the recent theft of precious jewellery from the world-renowned Louvre museum in Paris, the Paris prosecutor has said.
French media reported that one of the suspects was apprehended around 10 pm (20:00 GMT) on Saturday at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport as he was about to board a plane abroad, French media Le Parisien and Paris Match reported on Sunday, and the second was arrested not long after in the Paris region, according to Le Parisien.
The Louvre Museum in the French capital closed one week ago after a group of intruders successfully stole eight pieces of priceless jewellery in a quick-hit four-minute heist in broad daylight that rocked the world’s most-visited museum and was followed raptly around the globe.
The robbers had climbed the extendable ladder of a movers’ truck and cut into a first-floor gallery.
They dropped a crown as they fled down the ladder and onto scooters, but managed to steal eight other pieces, include an emerald-and-diamond necklace that Napoleon Bonaparte gave his wife, Empress Marie-Louise.
Officials said the jewels were worth an estimated $102 million but held incalculable cultural value.
An intensive manhunt for the thieves has been ongoing, involving dozens of investigators.
The brazen theft has made headlines across the world and sparked a debate in France about the security of cultural institutions.
Police initially cordoned off the museum – famously home to Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Mona Lisa – with tape and as armed soldiers patrolled its iconic glass pyramid entrance.
Police in Peru say they have arrested the main suspects in the murders of two women and a girl whose torture was streamed live on social media in Argentina, prompting outrage and mass protests.
The man accused of opening fire on the lobby of a Sacramento ABC television station cited the government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case as a motive and promised several members of the Trump administration would be “next,” according to a federal court filing made public Monday.
Anibal Hernandez-Santana, 64, is charged with multiple weapons offenses and interfering with a radio or communication station for firing several bullets at the window of ABC10’s offices in Sacramento around 1 p.m. on Friday, according to a criminal complaint.
Hernandez-Santana was arrested the same day as the shooting. During a search of his car, detectives found a note that read “For hiding Epstein & ignoring red flags,” according to the complaint filed by prosecutors in the Eastern District of California.
The note referenced FBI Director Kash Patel, his second-in-command Dan Bongino and U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, reading “They’re next. — C.K. from above.”
Sacramento Dist. Atty. Thien Ho said he believed the “C.K.” portion of the note was a reference to Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was killed by a sniper in Utah this month. In an interview on Monday, Ho said police also found a book titled “The Cult Of Trump” in Hernandez-Santana’s vehicle.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento said she could not comment beyond what was contained in court documents.
Patel said “targeted acts of violence are unacceptable and will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law,” in a post on X.
Hernandez-Santana was born in Puerto Rico and was not registered as a Republican or Democrat, according to voting records. The Trump administration has faced increasing criticism from both sides of the political spectrum to disclose more information about those who did business with Epstein, the financier charged with trafficking young girls to rich and powerful men before his death by suicide in a federal lockup in 2019.
Hernandez-Santana was a retired lobbyist, according to Ho, who said the shooting was clearly “politically motivated.”
Hernandez-Santana first registered as a lobbyist in 2001. His clients included an environmental justice group, the California Catholic Conference and the California Federation of Teachers, according to state lobbying records.
The day of the shooting, Ho said, a protest was scheduled to take place outside ABC10’s offices over their parent company’s decision to suspend late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over comments he made about the way Republicans have reacted to Kirk’s killing. Kimmel’s suspension was lifted Monday and he is expected to return to the air Tuesday,
Ho said it was clear the TV station was not a “random target.”
“When it comes to public safety it’s not about going right or left, it’s about moving forward … clearly he was motivated by current political events,” Ho said.
Hernandez-Santana did not have a significant criminal history and was not known to local law enforcement before the incident, according to the prosecutor.
Prosecutors said Hernandez-Santana fired four times at the ABC station, once near the building and three additional times at a window in the station’s lobby, according to court records. No one was injured, but there were employees inside at the time.
In addition to the message invoking members of Trump’s Cabinet, Sacramento Police detectives also found a day planner that contained a handwritten note to “Do the Next Scary Thing,” on the date of the attack, court records show.
In a court filing seeking to deny Hernandez-Santana bail, federal prosecutors said the note referencing Patel, Bongino and Bondi “indicates that he may have been planning additional acts of violence.”
Ho has also charged Santana-Hernandez with assault with a firearm and shooting at an inhabited dwelling. He was expected to make court appearances in both cases on Monday. It was not immediately clear whether he has an attorney.
Santana-Hernandez faces five years in federal prison and an additional 17 years in state prison if convicted as charged, according to Ho.
“When someone brazenly fires into a news station full of people in the middle of the day, it is not only an attack on innocent employees but also an attack on the news media and our community’s sense of safety,” Ho said in a statement.
Times staff writer Laura Nelson and researcher Cary Schneider contributed to this report.
Mayor Clara Brugada says ‘government will not rest’ until justice is served for the killing of two municipal officials.
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada has announced that authorities arrested 13 people for their alleged roles in the May attack that killed two high-ranking officials in the Mexican capital.
Brugada did not identify the suspects on Wednesday, but she said three were involved directly in the shooting.
“In this operation, 13 people were arrested, including three people who directly participated in the murder, and others related to the logistical preparation of the event,” she told reporters.
The daytime shooting of two of Brugada’s top aides by gunmen on motorbikes shocked the city, seen as a relative pocket of safety compared to the rest of the country.
The victims were Brugada’s personal secretary Ximena Guzman and adviser Jose Munoz.
“In memory of our colleagues and out of respect for their families and friends, this government will not rest until the truth is known and justice is served,” the mayor said in a social media post on Wednesday.
After the shooting, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, a Brugada ally who previously served as the capital’s mayor, vowed that her government would ensure that “justice is served”.
“We express our solidarity and support for the families of these two individuals who have worked in our movement for a long time,” Sheinbaum said in May.
“We know them, we stand with their families, and we will give her [Brugada] all the support the city needs from the Mexican government.”
For decades, Mexico has been struggling with high crime rates and murders, including violence against political and security officials as well as journalists.
In 2020, Mexico City’s security chief, Omar Garcia Harfuch, survived an ambush by gunmen that killed two of his bodyguards and a bystander.
Shortly after taking office last year, Sheinbaum’s administration announced a security strategy that focused on boosting intelligence gathering, strengthening the National Guard police and addressing root causes, including poverty.
Earlier this month, the United States – which has been struggling with its own crime rates – issued a travel advisory for Mexico, warning of security risks.
“Many violent crimes take place in Mexico. They include homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery,” the US State Department said. “There is a risk of terrorist violence, including terrorist attacks and other activity in Mexico.”
Tehran says it carried out widespread internal arrests as Israel, US launched huge strikes on the country in June.
Iranian police arrested as many as 21,000 “suspects” during the country’s 12-day conflict with Israel and the United States in June, according to state media citing a law enforcement spokesperson.
Following massive Israeli air strikes that began on June 13, which killed top military officials and scientists as well as hundreds of civilians, Iranian security forces began a campaign of widespread arrests accompanied by an intensified street presence based around checkpoints and “public reports”. The US also carried out extensive strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during the conflict on Israel’s behalf.
Iranian citizens were called upon to report on any individuals they thought were acting suspiciously.
“There was a 41 percent increase in calls by the public, which led to the arrest of 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war,” police spokesperson Saeid Montazerolmahdi said.
He did not say what those arrested were suspected of, but Tehran has spoken before of people passing on information that may have helped direct the Israeli attacks.
Since the end of June, Iran has executed seven men convicted of spying for Israel.
Deportations of Afghans
The Israel-US-Iran conflict has also led to an accelerated rate of deportations for Afghan refugees and migrants believed to be illegally in Iran, with aid agencies reporting that local authorities have also accused some Afghan nationals of spying for Israel.
“Law enforcement rounded up 2,774 illegal migrants and discovered 30 special security cases by examining their phones. [A total] 261 suspects of espionage and 172 people accused of unauthorised filming were also arrested,” the spokesperson added.
Montazerolmahdi did not specify how many of those arrested had since been released.
He added that Iran’s police handled more than 5,700 cases of cybercrimes such as online fraud and unauthorised withdrawals during the war, which he said had turned “cyberspace into an important battlefront”.
Yvette Cooper calls for ‘more transparency’ over the background of suspects charged with crimes
Guidance for police on sharing the immigration status and ethnicity of crime suspects “needs to change”, the home secretary has said, following calls for details to be released of two men charged over the alleged rape of a 12-year-old in Warwickshire.
Yvette Cooper said guidelines on disclosing personal information were being reviewed, but it is up to individual police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service to decide what is released.
The men under suspicion of the allegedrape are reportedly Afghan. Warwickshire County Council’s Reform UK leader claims they are asylum seekers.
Police have not confirmed this. Nigel Farage called the police’s decision not to publish the details a “cover-up”.
Asked if she believed such information should be in the public domain, Cooper told the BBC: “We do want to see more transparency in cases, we think local people do need to have more information.”
Warwickshire Police has previously said once someone is charged with an offence, the force follows national guidance that does not include sharing ethnicity or immigration status.
The two men accused of the offence in Warwickshire are Ahmad Mulakhil, who has been charged with two counts of rape, and Mohammad Kabir, who has been accused of kidnap, strangulation and aiding and abetting the rape of a girl aged under 13.
Mr Mulakhil, 23, appeared before magistrates in Coventry on 28 July, and Mr Kabir, also 23, appeared in court on Saturday.
Both were remanded in custody.
In a statement, Warwickshire Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Seccombe said: “It is essential to state that policing decisions – such as whether to release details about a suspect – must follow national guidance and legal requirements.”
He added that he would not speculate on the personal circumstances of those involved while court proceedings were active.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday about the alleged rape in Warwickshire, the home secretary said it was “an operational decision” how much information could be revealed in the middle of a live investigation but said “we do want to see greater transparency”.
She later told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We do think the guidance needs to change”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch agreed that the ethnicity and immigration status of suspects should be revealed.
Badenoch warned that the public would “start losing faith in the justice system and police if they feel things are being hidden.”
She said that police and home secretary were “saying different things” on the issue and that she is “not convinced we’ll see that transparency.”
‘Most officers want that information out there’
Emily Spurrell, chair of the Association Of Police And Crime Commissioners, told the BBC that police had had “a very difficult job in these kinds of instances”.
“Most officers I speak to want to get that information out there, they know the public want to know what’s going on, who’s being held to account,” she added.
But she said police were trying to “walk that line” of going public with information and ensuring suspects had access to a fair trial.
The Law Commission is conducting a review into what information or opinions someone should lawfully be able to publish after a suspect has been arrested.
Following a government request, it has agreed to speed up its reporting on the parts of the review that relate to what the government and law enforcement can do to counter misinformation, including where there are possible public order consequences of failing to do so.
The Southport murders committed by Axel Rudakubana in July last year led to speculation about the suspect’s ethnicity and immigration status.
False rumours spread online that he was a Muslim asylum seeker, fuelling widespread rioting in the aftermath of the killings.
An independent watchdog concluded in March that failure to share basic facts about the Southport killer led to “dangerous fictions” which helped spark rioting.
Jonathan Hall KC, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said it would have been “far better” for the authorities to share more accurate detail on the arrest of Rudakubana.
He said the “ineffectual near silence” from police, prosecutors and the government after the attacks led to disinformation that sparked the rioting.
Merseyside Police took a different approach last June after a car drove into crowds during Liverpool’s Premier League victory parade – they confirmed soon after the incident that they had arrested a “white British man”.
Nineteen suspects accused of being involved in the 2024 shooting attack in a Moscow concert hall that killed 149 people, and wounded over 600, have appeared in court in a glass cage at the beginning of their trial. A faction of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claims, without providing evidence, that Ukraine was involved in the attack, an allegation Kyiv vehemently denies.
The trial has begun for 19 defendants accused of involvement in the 2024 shooting attack in a Moscow concert hall that killed 149 people, and wounded over 600, in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital since the era of the Russian-Chechen wars in the 1990s and 2000s.
The suspects appearing in court on Monday, under heavy security, kept their heads bowed as they sat in the defendants’ cage.
An ISIL (ISIS) affiliate claimed responsibility for the March 22, 2024 massacre at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in which four gunmen shot people who were waiting for a show by a rock band and then set the building on fire. ISIL’s Afghan branch – also known as ISKP (ISIS-K) – claimed responsibility for the attack.
A massive blaze is seen at the Crocus City Hall on the western edge of Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 22, 2024. Several gunmen burst into the concert hall and fired automatic weapons at the crowd, killing dozens [Sergei Vedyashkin/Moscow News Agency via AP]
President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have claimed, without providing any evidence, that Ukraine was involved in the attack, an allegation Kyiv has vehemently denied.
The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top criminal investigation agency, concluded in June that the attack had been “planned and carried out in the interests of the current leadership of Ukraine in order to destabilise the political situation in our country”. It also said the four suspected gunmen tried to flee to Ukraine afterward.
The four, all identified as citizens of Tajikistan, were arrested hours after the attack and later appeared in a Moscow court with signs of having been beaten.
The committee said earlier this year that six other suspects were charged in absentia and placed on Russia’s wanted list for allegedly recruiting and organising the training of the four. Other defendants in the trial were accused of helping them.
In 2002, some 40 rebels from Chechnya stormed the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow and took around 800 people hostage while demanding an end to Putin’s war in the separatist southern republic.
Putin refused to negotiate with the fighters, and the standoff ended with mass death days later when Russian special services pumped a powerful gas into the building to stun the hostage-takers before storming it. Most of the 129 hostages who died were killed by the gas.
July 18 (UPI) — At least four people were killed and 18 injured, including children and seniors, after a high-speed multi-vehicle collision in San Antonio on Interstate 35, the city’s Police Department said.
The Thursday afternoon incident occurred when a stolen Chevy Camaro being driven at high speed reportedly crashed into a small passenger bus towing a trailer.
Police said they were looking for four suspects, one of whom was armed, who left the scene and asked people to avoid the Leon Creek section of southbound I-35.
“We had a stolen white Camaro south on 35 speeding wrecked into a small transport bus carrying a trailer. As a result of that crash, two individuals are dead. 18 have been transported to hospitals,” said San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus.
“There are four individuals who fled from the vehicle. One was armed with an AK rifle,” he added.
Bus operator, Fort Worth-based Transport Guerra, asked relatives of passengers who were on the Mexico-bound service to call their office.
The bus was scheduled to stop in Eagle Pass on the border, before crossing into Mexico with stops in the Carbonifera coal mining region and “5 manantiales.”
July 3 (UPI) — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the family of the man accused of attacking a group of Jewish demonstrators in Colorado last month, ruling that despite confusion caused by the Trump administration, they are receiving their full rights under immigration law and their deportation proceedings are not being expedited.
Hayam El Gamal and her five children were detained by federal immigration agents on June 3, days after her husband, 45-year-old Egyptian national Mohamed Sabry Soliman, allegedly wounded more than a dozen people attending a weekly Boulder, Colo., event in support of Jewish hostages held by Hamas using a makeshift flamethrower and Molotov cocktails.
One of the wounded, 82-year-old Karen Diamond, died of her injuries, prosecutors announced Monday.
The family has been fighting deportation since their detention, believing their removal process was being expedited, which is not permitted under the Immigration and Nationality Act, as they have been in the country for more than two years.
They received temporary restraining orders preventing their removal as the judge reviewed the case.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia dismissed their lawsuit without prejudice, finding that despite the confusion over whether their deportation was being expedited, they were, in fact, placed into ordinary removal proceedings and would appear before an immigration judge where they could seek protection from removal.
“Accordingly, to the extent that petitioners seek to enjoin their removal on an expedited basis, this request is moot,” Garcia said in her ruling. “And to the extent that petitioners seek to enjoin their being subjected to ordinary, or ‘full,’ removal proceedings, such relief is not available to them.”
The confusion over their removal proceedings arose from Trump administration statements published the day they were detained.
The White House posted a statement to X claiming that “six one-way tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and five kids” had been arranged and that “final boarding call coming soon.” The tweet ended with an emoji of an airplane.
A second tweet from the White House said “THEY COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT.”
The statements prompted the family to file a lawsuit seeking to halt their expedited removal.
Garcia highlighted the confusion caused by the White House messaging in her ruling, but said the government has since clarified that this is not the case.
“The court hastens to remind petitioners that they still have an avenue for seeking their release from detention while their removal proceedings continue,” said Garcia, a President Bill Clinton appointee.
The Department of Homeland Security celebrated the ruling without acknowledging the confusion caused by the White House’s messaging.
“This is a proper end to an absurd legal effort on the plaintiff’s part,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin at the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
“Just like her terrorist husband, she and her children are here illegally and are rightfully in ICE custody for removal as a result.”
DHS has previously argued that the Soliman family is in the United States illegally.
According to an earlier statement from DHS, Soliman, his wife and their five children first came to the United States on Aug. 27, 2022, and filed for asylum about a month later. They were granted entry until Feb. 26, 2023, and had apparently overstayed their visas since.
Soliman has pleaded not guilty to 12 federal hate crime counts.