Another Blow for Use of Secret Evidence - N.Y. Times
October 23, 1999
"The agency's position is based on classified information Kiareldeen and his lawyers have not been allowed to see but which an immigration judge termed "unreliable." "*
* Quote taken from NY TIMES new item "Board Delays Release Date for Immigrant". Copy follows below.
Just as the secret evidence in the case below has been revealed to be "unreliable", there is no doubt that the secret evidence that has been used against Jonathan Pollard, which he has never been allowed to access in order to challenge in a court of law, is equally as "unreliable."
Board Delays Release Date for Immigrant
October 23, 1999 - Ronald Smothers - The New York Times
NEWARK, N.J. -- A three-member panel of the Board of Immigration Appeals, in a sharply divided decision Friday, delayed until midnight on Monday its order releasing a 31-year-old Palestinian immigrant who has been detained in prison for 18 months on secret evidence accusing him of being connected with terrorist groups.
The action in the case of Hany Kiareldeen came as a result of a request by the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, which said that it needed more time to determine how and whether to appeal a string of rulings this past week that have rejected the agency's arguments that Kiareldeen is dangerous and a threat to national security.
The agency's position is based on classified information Kiareldeen and his lawyers have not been allowed to see but which an immigration judge termed "unreliable."
The week was also marked by a flurry of activity in the case in federal courts, including a district court judge's ruling that the use of secret evidence to detain Kiareldeen was a violation of due process. An appeal of that ruling, the first such action by a federal judge, was heard by an appeals court judge on Thursday and then sent, on an expedited basis, for further hearing to a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In what appeared to be a compromise ruling by the board, Anthony Moscato wrote in the majority opinion that only "a brief stay" of the release was warranted in order "to permit the service to consider its course of action in light of its national security responsibilities."
Mike Gilhooly, a spokesman for the INS, said that the agency would consider over the weekend one of three courses of action allowed by immigration law. The first is a formal request to the board panel acting Friday to reconsider its release order. The second option is to appeal the board's release order to Attorney General Janet Reno. The third alternative is to accept the ruling and release Kiareldeen by Monday.
See also: