The researcher at the University of Georgetown, Badar Khan Suri, was released from a Texas detention center after being arrested in the repression of the Trump administration against activists through university campuses.
A federal judge ordered the release of Mr. Suri, who was a postdoctoral scholarship holder at the prestigious Washington DC institution on a student visa.
An Indian national, he was arrested in front of his home in Virginia on March 17 by immigration agents.
His lawyers say he was targeted “for speech in support of Palestinian rights and family ties with Gaza”. The American authorities accuse him of “spreading the propaganda of Hamas” and of having “links with a known or suspected terrorist”.
The Ministry of Justice argued that the government had the right to hold it until the end of legal proceedings.
However, American district judge Patricia Tolliver Giles judged on Wednesday that her detention had violated her right to freedom of expression and regular procedure.
She refuted the statements of the government that he had links with Hamas through his wife Mapheze Saleh, an American citizen whose father was a government official in Gaza.
“No evidence was submitted to this court concerning the statements he made” in support of Hamas, said the judge according to the American partner of the BBC CBS News.
Mr. Suri’s stepfather is a former adviser to Hamas Ismail Haniyeh who was killed in July from last year, Washington Post and New York Times reported.
In her statement, Ms. Saleh said her father lived in the United States for almost 20 years during her studies. “Subsequently, he was political advisor to the Prime Minister of Gaza and as a deputy for foreign affairs in Gaza,” she said.
Saleh said he had left the Gaza government in 2010 and started an institute to encourage peace and conflict resolution in Gaza in 2011.
“To hear the words of the judge made me cry the tears,” said Ms. Saleh in a press release from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is involved in the defense of Mr. Suri.
“I really want to be able to give him a sincere hug and my three children, who had long been to see their father again,” she said.
“Talking about what’s going on in Palestine is not a crime.”
The Trump administration is still trying to expel Mr. Suri in a separate procedure, Aclu said.
Several students and academics have been investigated by American immigration officials in recent weeks, accusing them of pleading for “violence and terrorism”.
Among them was the graduate of Columbia University and the permanent resident of the United States Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested on March 8 after being involved in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the campus. He was accused of having links with Hamas, which he denies.
The Liberation of Badar Khan Suri comes a few days after the student of the University of Tufts, Rumeysa Ozturk, was released under a bail after an order from the court.
Ms. Ozturk was maintained in a detention center in Louisiana after officials arrested her on rue du Massachusetts in March and accusing him of “engaging in activities in support of Hamas”.
