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US: Judge delays decision on Kurd's deportation
18.11.2005
By SAM SKOLNIK
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TACOMA - A federal immigration judge delayed
making a decision Wednesday on whether to kick an
Iraqi Kurdish immigrant accused of being an al-Qaida
"facilitator" out of the country, or whether he
could be released on bail pending a resolution of
his case.
FBI Special Agent James Donovan testified at the
hearing in the Northwest Detention Center that Sam
Malkandi, 46, of Kirkland had admitted to him during
a late September interrogation that he had lied on
immigration forms when trying to come into the
country in 1997.
The fabrications, Malkandi testified earlier in the
day, included saying he had spent time in an Iranian
jail before fleeing to a U.N. refugee camp in
Pakistan, that his first wife had committed suicide
because of her interrogations by Iranian
authorities, and that he had belonged to a political
party unpopular with the Iraqi government.
Though no indictments or criminal charges have been
filed, Donovan said he and others at the FBI have
been investigating Malkandi since September 2002 in
a terror-related inquiry.
"In this particular case, we didn't feel we were
ever at that step" to ask for an indictment or file
a criminal complaint against Malkandi, Donovan said
while being cross-examined by Malkandi's attorney,
Jason Burnett of Seattle.
Darrick Smalley, a senior special agent for U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testified last
week that he believed Malkandi is a "facilitator"
for al-Qaida -- one, Smalley said, who had tried to
help a former top Osama bin Laden lieutenant, Tawfiq
bin Attash, enter the country in 1999.
Friends and colleagues of Malkandi's have painted a
portrait of a hard-working, genial man who
volunteers for his community and loves the United
States.
Malkandi's supporters say that's the opposite of
someone who ever would have knowingly helped an al-Qaida
terrorist enter the country.
U.S. Immigration Judge Kenneth Josephson said he
would rule on the bond motion within two weeks.
The judge said he may not rule on whether Malkandi
and his wife, son and daughter can remain in the
country until early next year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com
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