KurdistanObserver.com

Judge Orders Release of Kurdish Immigrant Accused of Terrorism

May 20, 2005

DETROIT (AP) -- A federal judge on Friday ordered the release of a jailed Kurdish immigrant while he appeals his deportation on terrorism charges, praising him as "a model immigrant" and questioning the government's motives.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn ruled that Ibrahim Parlak should be freed on $50,000 bond. Parlak, 43, has been in jail since his July 29 arrest and is appealing an immigration judge's December order to deport him to Turkey.

Cohn said the complexities of Parlak's case mean he is likely to be held for an unreasonable period and noted his strong community ties in the Lake Michigan resort town of Harbert, where he lives and owns a restaurant.

"He has been a model immigrant vigorously asserting his right to remain in the United States. He is not a threat to anyone nor a risk of flight," the judge wrote. "Under these circumstances, there is simply no good reason to deny him his freedom pending completion of the removal proceedings."

Cohn said Parlak's release would be postponed for 10 days to give the government a chance to appeal.

Greg Palmore, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Detroit, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were aware of the decision and were "considering all options."

The government attorneys who represented ICE in federal court declined to comment.

"For Ibrahim, this restores his faith in the American justice system," Parlak attorney Jay Marhoefer said after speaking to him from the Calhoun County Jail in Battle Creek.

Marhoefer said it is rare for a federal judge to grant a petition for release to someone involved in immigration proceedings. He said he had not expected a favorable ruling to come so quickly, given that Parlak's legal team only filed its final brief on Wednesday.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, who has voiced support for Parlak on the Senate floor, welcomed Friday's news. "Judge Cohn did the right thing," the Michigan Democrat said.

In his order, Cohn said there was no evidence that Parlak's case had been unduly dragged out up to this point.

However, Cohn noted an apparent "piling on of charges" by the government. Parlak was initially charged with lying on an immigration form about his conviction in Turkey for separatism; other charges, including terrorism, were added later.

"The manner in which Petitioner's case has proceeded, or rather escalated, raises suspicion as to the actions of ICE under the circumstances. Once Petitioner was labeled a terrorist, the proceedings took on a decidedly more complex, if not high-profile, aura," he wrote.

The government wants to deport Parlak, who was granted asylum in 1992, because of his past ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in Turkey. The U.S. State Department classified the PKK as a terrorist group in 1997.

The Department of Homeland Security says Parlak did not disclose important details about his separatist activities in his original asylum application and also omitted his conviction in Turkey from subsequent immigration forms.

Parlak's supporters say he was never involved in violence. His lawyers point out that the Turkish security court system that convicted him has since been abolished because of international pressure. Human rights groups say the courts relied on confessions extracted by torture.

In December, following a two-day hearing in U.S. Immigration Court in Detroit, Judge Elizabeth Hacker ruled that the government had sufficiently proved its case and ordered Parlak deported. His case now is pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.

Both the immigration court and the appeals board are part of the Department of Justice. If Parlak loses his case before the board, he can bring it to the federal court system by appealing to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The government had said Parlak should remain in jail while his case winds through the system, arguing that he is subject to a federal law providing for the mandatory detention of criminal and terrorist aliens. Parlak's lawyers argued that the law does not apply to him because the allegations involve events that are too old.

Parlak's case has inspired strong support in and around Harbert, where he owns Cafe Gulistan, a Kurdish restaurant.

His friends were euphoric Friday.

"Based on the arguments and the Constitution and justice, you expect justice to be done, but with our past experience with this case, we didn't know," said Martin Dzuris, a spokesman for Parlak's supporters.