Palestinian Pro-Palestine activist Machmud Chalil released
Palestinian activist Machmud Chalil, who was arrested in the USA, has been released on bail from detention pending deportation.
21.06.2025, 05:13
SDA
Chalil left the detention center in Jena in the US state of Louisiana on Friday evening (local time), according to US media reports. A US judge had previously ordered his release.
The federal judge in the state of New Jersey has thus granted Chalil's request for release while his trial continues, the Wall Street Journal and CBS News reported. According to the New York Times, when asked what he would do first when he returned home, Chalil replied: "Just hug my wife and son."
The case has been causing a stir in the USA for months. It was the first publicly known arrest of a pro-Palestinian activist during US President Donald Trump's term of office - and more have since followed.
Chalil was arrested at his home in New York in March and subsequently transferred to a detention center in the state of Louisiana. The graduate of the renowned Columbia University in Manhattan had taken part in pro-Palestinian protests on campus. The US government wants to deport him and accuses him, among other things, of distributing leaflets with the Islamist Hamas logo on the university campus. Chalil's lawyers reject the accusations.
How the judge justified his decision
The federal judge described the government's attempt to continue holding Chalil as "very, very, very unusual" in the telephone hearing this Friday, according to NPR. According to the New York Times, he found that the remaining charges against Chalil did not require detention.
The judge had previously ruled that the grounds on which Chalil had previously been detained were not legal. This is a rarely used provision according to which Chalil's presence allegedly jeopardizes the foreign policy interests of the United States. The court declared this practice presumptively unconstitutional.
A Justice Department lawyer told CBS News that the government will likely appeal the decision. It was initially unclear whether it would also assert new grounds for detention.
Chalil recently became a father
According to his lawyers, Chalil has a green card, which grants him permanent residency in the USA. His wife is a US citizen and their child was recently born. Chalil was only allowed to see his son briefly after the birth.
