Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil told his lawyers he felt as if he was being “kidnapped” while being detained by different law enforcement officers and agents in New York on Saturday for his orchestration of role in pro-Palestinian protests on the school’s campus last year.
“Throughout this process, Mr. Khalil felt as though he was being kidnapped. He was reminded of prior experience fleeing arbitrary detention in Syria and forced disappearance of his friends in Syria in 2013,” his lawyers wrote in court filings.
“It was shortly after this that Mr. Khalil left Syria. At no time throughout this process did any of the agents identify themselves.”
Khalil, who was born to Palestinian immigrants in Syria and maintains citizenship in Algeria, is a green card holder. He said he was initially denied medication required daily for his ulcer while officers refused to provide him with a pillow or blanket throughout his stay, according to court filings.
The ex-Columbia student’s wife said agents forced Khalil into an unmarked car Saturday evening after they returned from an iftar dinner to mark the end of their fast for Ramadan.
Agents then transported him to Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey before flying him to Dallas and eventually Louisiana, where he remains detained at a facility in Jena, La., according to the Associated Press.
His lawyers say they have had little to no contact with Khalil, who has not been criminally charged.
“He‘s being charged with having ideas and speaking out about them. Ideas that the government disapproves of. And really, that‘s all there is to it,” Khalil’s attorney, Donna Liberman, said during a Friday appearance on CNN.
“This is a targeted, retaliatory and extreme attack on the right of free expression.”
Some lawmakers have agreed with the stance and detailed their concerns in a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, urging her to release Khalil immediately.
“It’s an attempt to bully and intimidate students from speaking out, faculty from speaking out. And it’s an attempt to bully the rest of us into being quiet and going with the administration‘s program. Last I heard, we were a democracy,” Liberman told CNN.
“This attempt to quell free speech is absolutely terrifying. If they can disappear somebody for doing nothing but having ideas that the government disapproves of, it should be terrifying to everybody.”
A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting Khalil during court proceedings, while the Justice Department has requested to move the case to New Jersey or Louisiana instead of New York.
Khalil’s attorney and federal prosecutors were asked to submit a joint letter by noon Friday EDT detailing when they plan to submit written arguments in the case.
