Batavia detainee still in limbo

Friends, allies are rallying for Muslim man seeking freedom

By Steve Orr
Staff writer

(March 8, 2004) — As a long-term Muslim detainee in Batavia awaits action on a last-ditch appeal for his freedom, his supporters are planning another rally to support his cause.

This time they will be armed with fresh ammunition — letters of support from two members of Congress, as well as a formal complaint to the United Nations that calls for Ansar Mahmood’s release.

Mahmood, 26, a legal immigrant from Pakistan, has been incarcerated at the Federal Detention Facility in Batavia for nearly 26 months. In January, he abandoned his final legal appeal and formally requested that federal officials either deport him or release him on essentially humanitarian grounds.

Federal officials said Friday that a legal technicality has kept them from even beginning their review of Mahmood’s request, however.

In October 2001, Mahmood was a resident of Hudson, Columbia County, when he was picked up for taking a photograph under circumstances deemed suspicious. Authorities verified that he was simply taking a tourist photo and cleared him of any terrorist connections, but he then was charged with a felony for giving financial help to a Pakistani couple who were in this country on expired visas.

Mahmood subsequently was ordered to be deported. He has been in the Batavia lockup since February 2002.

His case has generated international publicity, and sparked a growing campaign of support. At 1 p.m. Saturday, his backers will hold a rally outside the facility in Batavia. At least two rallies have been held previously.

Rally organizer Rajesh Barnabas of Rochester said he has never met Mahmood, but chose to get involved in his case after reading about him, and seeing his photograph, in the newspaper.

I was like, ‘My God, this guy looks like me. It could be me,’” Barnabas said, adding that he and Mahmood are nearly the same age and of similar ethnicity (Barnabas, 27, is of Indian heritage).

“I totally identified with him. It was just a pitiful story. I figured it was happening right here, so we could do something about it.”

Barnabas said he hopes that at least 30 supporters from the Rochester area will attend. Another dozen or so are expected from the Hudson area, where several activist groups have been lobbying hard on Mahmood’s behalf.

Mahmood’s supporters have obtained letters of support from Reps. Charles Rangel, D-Manhattan, and Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, Ulster County.

In addition, Mahmood’s case was highlighted in a written complaint filed in January with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention by the American Civil Liberties Union. Mahmood was one of 13 men in whose names the complaint was filed.

The ACLU said the United States government had wrongly arrested and detained Muslims in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and argued the detentions constituted discrimination on racial or religious grounds.

It asked the U.N. group, based in Switzerland, to declare the detentions arbitrary and to urge the United States to act favorably toward the complainants who continue to be detained. Bridgette Pak, an ACLU lawyer involved with the case, said it could be five months or more before the U.N. group acts on the complaint.

Three of the 13 complainants are still in custody, the ACLU said. In addition to Mahmood, an Algerian citizen, Benamar Benatta, is incarcerated at the Batavia facility, according to the ACLU.

Benatta, who had overstayed a visa and was in the United States improperly, was taken into custody at the U.S.-Canadian border at Niagara Falls just days before the terrorist attacks. He was later charged with criminal offenses, but those charges were dismissed after U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. in Buffalo concluded Benatta had not been brought to trial in a timely fashion.

Benatta claims he was not allowed access to lawyers and was physically abused by guards in a Brooklyn detention facility. He remains in Batavia on immigration charges, the ACLU said.

Mahmood’s request for supervised release from Batavia has not yet been taken up by immigration officials, said Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency will not consider the request until appellate judges in New York officially sign off on Mahmood’s withdrawal of his appeal there.

A Buffalo lawyer who has represented Mahmood, Rolando Rex Velasquez, said Friday he hadn’t known that the government was waiting for the appeal to be formally ended and said he would look into the matter.

Mahmood could not be reached for comment.