A federal judge ordered a scholar of Georgetown who has been allegedly based on his pro-palestinian speech to be released on bail.
The visiting scholar, Dr. Badar Khan Suri, could be released from custody in Texas as soon as Wednesday, once the Immigration and Customs Compliance officials receive a written order from Judge Patricia Giles of the East District of Virginia.
During a judicial hearing, the judge put himself on the side of the argument of the ACLU that Suri, that he had a legal status, was arrested based on his protected speech of the first amendment in support of Palestine and that he was unfairly punished by the association of his wife, who had once worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Gaza, and his father’s connection in the father with a leader of Hamas now, the leader of Hamas now, the leader of Hamas now. Suri’s wife is an American citizen, their lawyers said.
Judge Giles concluded that Suri is not a risk of flight and is not a danger to the community and, therefore, must be released on bail, while continuing to participate in his separate elimination procedures.
During the hearing on Wednesday, the judge admonished the government to decline to present any additional argument or evidence that Suri is not “retaliation” so he concluded that it was a speech protected by the first amendment, even when high -ranking officials such as Secretary Marco Rubio or President Donald Trump have been making statements about Suri and others in similar situations.
The judge said that the continuous arrest of Suri in Texas will cause “irreparable damage” for both him and the public due to the “chilling effect” that his detention has caused in the freedom of expression protected by the first amendment.
Mapheze Saleh, wife of arrested and detained, the scholar of the University of Georgetown, Badar Khan Suri, has a sign that asks for her husband’s release after her hearing in the Federal District Court for the East district of Virginia, in Alexandria, Virginia, on May 1, 2025.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
As conditions of his release, the judge said that Suri should continue residing in Virginia and attend all judicial hearings in this case, as well as in their separate elimination procedures.
She rejected the other requests from the Government of conditions of her bond, including the imposition of a GPS monitor. According to the application for the plaintiffs, the judge also explicitly prohibited the government for the government without a 48 -hour notice to the court and his lawyer.
The Court Court on Wednesday attended dozens of people, including family, friends and colleagues of the academic in Georgetown and defenders.
Eden Heilman, legal director of Virginia ACLU, described Suri’s liberation as a “great victory” at a press conference after the judicial hearing.
“Dr. Khan Suri should never have been stopped first of all,” said Heilman. “It should never have been arrested. It should never have had their rights to the first amendment, which protect all of us, regardless of citizenship, we trample because ideas are not illegal. Americans do not want to live in a country where the federal government disappears whose points of view does not like.”
Badar Khan Suri.
Georgetown University
“Listening to the judge’s words made me tears in my eyes. I would like to be able to give him a hug of me and my three children who yearn to see his father,” said Maphese Saleh, Suri’s wife on Wednesday.
She added: “Badar’s beliefs are not a threat … as the United States government affirms. Badar is a scholar, a researcher and a lover of truth and justice.”
Suri was arrested on March 17 by ICE agents outside his apartment building in Virginia and accused of elimination and detained, according to a complaint obtained by ABC News.
Judge Giles that month blocked the deportation of Suri of the United States “unless and until the court issues a opposite order.”
The National Security Department said that Suri was “actively spreading the propaganda of Hamas and promoting anti -Semitism in social networks,” according to a statement. The department claimed that Suri had close connections with a “known or presumed terrorist” who is the main advisor of Hamas.
The lawyers who represent Suri said in a complaint: “This was done in accordance with a policy to retaliate and punish non -citizens such as Mr. Suri only for their family ties with those who may have expressed criticism of the foreign policy of the United States in relation to Israel.”
Suri is the fifth student to be ordered in Bond in Bond In recent weeks, the others are Mohsen Mahdawi at Columbia University, Rumeysa Öztürk of the University of Tufts, Efe Ercelik of the University of Massachusetts and Mohammed Hoque of Minnesota State University-Mankato.
ABC News Ely Brown contributed to this report.
