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[Previous entry: "MALDEF Files Suit in Virginia Challenging College Admissions Denials"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "New: Bureau of Immigration and Citizenship Services Processing Times"] 09/11/2003 Entry: "Ex-terror suspect awaits ruling on deportation" DETROIT -- A man once listed on the FBI's terrorism watch list and detained for nearly two years asked an immigration judge in Detroit Wednesday to stop his deportation to Syria because he fears he will be killed if he is returned to that country. DETROIT -- A man once listed on the FBI's terrorism watch list and detained for nearly two years asked an immigration judge Wednesday to stop his deportation to Syria because he fears he will be killed if he is returned to that country. Nabil al-Marabh, 36, testified that he feared torture or even death if returned to Syria. He was identified in a Canadian court document in 2001 as suspected of being "connected to the bin Laden network." Al-Marabh was on the FBI's terrorism watch list when agents went to the door of an apartment in southwest Detroit looking for him on Sept. 17, 2001. Instead, they found three men, one of whom was later convicted of terrorism charges. Al-Marabh was arrested outside Chicago on Sept. 19, 2001. He was held in a special unit at New York's Metropolitan Detention Center until May 2002. In court Wednesday, al-Marabh said he came to the United States in 1989 and then traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1992. There was a civil war in Afghanistan and though he attended a training camp to learn how to fire weapons, he denied taking part in violent activities. While in Pakistan, he said he met Raed Hijazi, who was convicted in September 2000 in a failed plot to bomb holy sites and a hotel in Jordan. In 1995, Hijazi lived with al-Marabh in Boston for about 2 1/2 months after al-Marabh sent him $500 to buy a plane ticket. Al-Marabh said he had no further contact with Hijazi. "The government hasn't presented one shred of evidence that Nabil al-Marabh has ever been involved in terrorism," said his lawyer Mark Kriger. Al-Marabh said he lived in Michigan for about six months until January 2001 to get truck driving training and never knew the men found at the home. Marsha Nettles, a government lawyer, said al-Marabh had been evasive in his answers and shouldn't be allowed to stay in this country because he didn't prove that he is in danger if he returns to Syria. Judge Robert Newberry said he would issue a ruling by Oct. 8. By David Shepardson / The Detroit News
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