Long-Held Terror Suspect Is Finally Released

In another setback for the U.S. government, a federal appeals court late Monday ordered the release of a Buena Park man held at an immigration detention facility for more than two years for allegedly having ties to terrorism.

“No words can describe how I’m feeling right now,” Abdel Jabbar Hamdan said shortly after 9:30 p.m. as he left the Terminal Island federal detention facility in San Pedro with his wife and five children. “I’m ecstatic.”

It was the third time since Thursday that a court has blocked legal maneuvers by Justice Department officials to keep Hamdan locked up while he appeals a deportation order.

ACLU attorney Ranjana Natarajan said she was assured by government lawyers that they planned no further appeals.

“Mr. Hamdan is elated and grateful that this is over,” Natarajan said. “He wants to go home to his family.” Hamdan is the father of six U.S.-born children.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an eleventh-hour attempt to block a ruling by a federal judge who ordered Hamdan released “forthwith” on Friday.

The appellate court’s denial of the government’s request to overrule U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. was issued in three sentences, also concluding that Hamdan should be released “forthwith.”

Justice Department officials could not be reached for comment Monday evening.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, however, released a statement indicating that Hamdan would be required to comply with an electronic monitoring program requiring him to be at home from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily and stay within a 50-mile radius of his home. The Homeland Security and Justice departments, the statement said, “will continue the vigorous effort to remove” him from the United States.

The 9th Circuit Court’s ruling ended a day of legal maneuvering by the government to keep Hamdan locked up.

Earlier, a frustrated Hatter, who had seen his previous order ignored, threatened to hold Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in contempt.

The DHS runs the jail at Terminal Island in Los Angeles County where Hamdan was locked up.

Hatter had ordered Chertoff to release Hamdan by 5 p.m. Monday or appear in his Los Angeles courtroom at 11 a.m. today “to show cause, if you have any, why you should not be held in contempt.” Last week Hatter twice ordered Hamdan released, most recently Friday after denying a government request to reconsider.

Homeland Security officials had defended their decision not to release Hamdan on the grounds that government lawyers in Washington planned to file an emergency request to block Hatter’s order.

The government’s brief asking for the stay was filed late Monday and quickly rejected.

Hamdan, 45, was accused of having ties to terrorism but charged with overstaying a tourist visa he received 27 years ago. An immigration judge ordered him deported to Jordan.

He has appealed, and the case is pending.

Before his arrest July 28, 2004, Hamdan worked as a fundraiser for the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity shut down by U.S. officials in December 2001 for allegedly raising money for Hamas, a Palestinian organization the U.S. State Department has designated as terrorist.

The charity’s top officers were charged with terrorism-related crimes and freed on their own recognizance by a Texas federal judge who said the government had failed to prove they were security threats or flight risks.

Hamdan was charged with violating immigration law and has been held without bond as a national security threat.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.