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DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge has asked
attorneys for a Kurdish immigrant to sum up their
arguments for why he should be released from jail
while he appeals his deportation on terrorism
charges.
Jay Marhoefer, an attorney for Ibrahim Parlak, said
he had hoped U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn might
rule on the matter Wednesday, but he did not.
Instead, Cohn asked Parlak's attorneys to submit a
final brief summarizing their arguments by May 18.
The judge said he would then issue a written
opinion, but did not indicate a time frame,
Marhoefer said.
Parlak, 43, has been in jail since his July 29
arrest and is appealing an immigration judge's
December order to deport him to Turkey. His case has
inspired strong support in and around Harbert, the
Lake Michigan resort town where he runs his own
restaurant.
The government wants to deport Parlak because of his
past ties to the group PKK, the Kurdistan Workers'
Party, now known as KONGRA-GEL, in Turkey. The U.S.
State Department classified the PKK as a terrorist
group in 1997.
In a petition for his release from jail, Parlak's
lawyers argued in March that the government has
failed to show that he is either a danger to anyone
or a flight risk.
But the government argued in a brief filed Wednesday
that Parlak is subject to a federal law providing
for the mandatory detention of criminal and
terrorist aliens. Parlak's lawyers had argued that
the law does not apply to him because the
allegations involve events that are too old.
Parlak, who was granted asylum in 1992, owns a
Kurdish restaurant, Cafe Gulistan, in Harbert. His
friends and supporters say he never was involved in
violence and they fear he could face reprisals if he
is sent back to Turkey.
Parlak was convicted in Turkey in 1988 of engaging
in separatist activities. The Turkish government
said he was involved in a firefight on the
Syrian-Turkish border in which two Turkish soldiers
were killed. Parlak maintains he played no role in
the shootings.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Parlak
did not disclose important details about his
separatist activities in his original asylum
application and also omitted his conviction in
Turkey from subsequent immigration forms.
Parlak's lawyers point out that the Turkish security
court system that convicted him since has been
abolished because of international pressure. Human
rights groups say the courts relied on confessions
extracted by torture.
In December, following a two-day hearing in U.S.
Immigration Court in Detroit, Judge Elizabeth Hacker
ruled that the government had sufficiently proved
its case and ordered Parlak deported. His case now
is pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.
AP
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