Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania: An Egyptian national won a reprieve Friday against US government efforts to deport him to Egypt, where he was convicted in absentia of a woman s murder nearly a decade ago.
US District Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie stopped the deportation of Sameh Sami S. Khouzam while the court considers his argument that he can t be sent back to Egypt because officials there will probably torture him.
While Khouzam may have no right to be in the United States, he most assuredly has a right not to be tortured, Vanaskie wrote. Granting a stay of removal to assure proper observance of the applicable law serves the public interest.
Egyptian diplomats have said Khouzam was sentenced to prison for the murder of Zaki Mohammed Youssef that apparently occurred shortly before he flew to the United States nine years ago. It s unclear when the trial took place or the length of his sentence.
Khouzam, a Coptic Christian, was arrested by US government officials when his plane landed in New York in February 1998, and spent the next eight years in American prisons. A federal judge granted him a deferral of removal in 2000 under an international treaty that bans deportation to a country where torture is likely.
Khouzam, 38, won a 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals decision in 2004, and was released last year. He most recently has lived in Lancaster, where he works as a controller for a real-estate company.
Federal immigration officials took him into custody last month, saying he would be deported following assurances from Egypt that he would not be tortured.
While Egypt has a substantial interest in seeing that its criminal laws are enforced, this case does not present issues of national security or compelling foreign policy interests sufficient to counsel against adjudication of (Khouzam) s claims, Vanaskie wrote.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Marc Raimondi said the assurances by high-level Egyptian diplomats that Khouzam would not be tortured were considered sufficient. He said Vanaskie s decision was being reviewed, and the agency was considering its legal options.
