A Buena Park man jailed for two years because of his alleged ties to terrorism was ordered freed Thursday by a federal judge in Los Angeles who rejected the government's argument that he was a national security threat.
The order came two years to the day after Abdel Jabbar Hamdan was arrested and incarcerated in the immigration detention facility at Terminal Island. The Palestinian father of six U.S.-born children was later ordered deported to Jordan, where he grew up, for overstaying a student visa issued 27 years ago.
U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter issued the order to free Hamdan, the president of the Anaheim mosque West Coast Islamic Society, on Thursday, but a written copy was not immediately available, said his courtroom deputy, Yolanda Skipper. Hatter's decision was in response to a petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on Hamdan's behalf last July.
Yaman Hamdan said her family was "happy but cautious" about her father's pending release.
"I spoke with my dad and he was ecstatic. My mom was happy and crying. But we don't want to get our hopes too high because we don't know what else the government can do. But it was definitely good news," said Yaman Hamdan, a law student at Chapman University in Orange.
ACLU attorney Ranjana Natarajan said it was not clear whether Hamdan would be released Thursday evening or today.
Hamdan, 45, is still facing deportation to Jordan and has an appeal pending in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lori Haley, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency was still waiting for written instructions from Hatter.
"ICE is attempting to obtain a copy of the judge's ruling, and the agency will study it to determine a course of action," Haley said.
The Hamdan case has become a symbol among those who maintain that the Bush administration has wrongly used terrorism allegations to jail Muslims, sometimes holding them for months without bond. In cases such as Hamdan's, suspects are charged with immigration law violations.
Last year, immigration officials were forced to free four Iranian brothers from Los Angeles after keeping them locked up more than three years. The Mirmehdi brothers were accused of supporting a terrorist group and being national security threats but instead were prosecuted on immigration charges. They were ordered deported, but their deportations to Iran were blocked by immigration judges.
