Pro-Palestinian Georgetown student can remain free, US appeals court rules

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FILE PHOTO: A statue of John Carroll, first Archbishop of Baltimore and founder of Georgetown University, sits on the Georgetown campus in Washington June 14, 2012. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

A pro-Palestinian Georgetown University student from India, detained by President Donald Trumps administration but then released on a judges order, can remain free while fighting deportation efforts, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 against the administrations request that Badar Khan Suri be returned to immigration detention. The 4th Circuit said it found no grounds to overturn the decision by U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles to order Suris release.

To allow the government to undermine habeas jurisdiction by moving detainees without notice or accountability reduces the writ of habeas corpus to a game of jurisdictional hide-and-seek, Judge James Andrew Wynn wrote on Tuesday.

Habeas corpus refers to a procedure under which the legality of a persons incarceration can be challenged in court.

Suri, 41, was arrested in Virginia in March and then moved by the U.S. government to Texas, where he was released in May after the ruling by Giles. Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetowns Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, part of the Jesuit universitys School of Foreign Service.

The Trump administration has attempted to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student protesters while accusing them of being antisemitic, threats to American foreign policy and extremist sympathizers. Suri has denied the U.S. governments