He was arrested at his home last December 14 by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on the same day that the FBI, U.S. Treasury, CIA, and NATO agents raided the suburban Chicago offices of the Global Relief Foundation. Haddad was a cofounder of the foundation, which has given emergency relief and aid to people in 22 countries.

The government seized the assets of the charity group--more than $5 million--claiming that it funds terrorists. FBI agents also took more than 500,000 pages of records. But no active foundation member, including Haddad, was charged with any crime.

Nearly 10 months later, Haddad is still in jail. His attorneys presented a motion that he be released on his own recognizance. The only charge against him is allegedly overstaying a tourist visa. The government also wants to deport his wife and three of their four children, also for expired visas.

Protesters carried signs that said, "Finally, an open hearing!" His first bond hearing was held in secret to comply with the September 21 directive by chief U.S. Immigration Judge Michael Creppy, who at the behest of Attorney General John Ashcroft instructed all immigration hearings related to so-called terror investigations be closed to the public.

Protests against the closed hearing were held in Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Chicago. The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, as well as the American Civil Liberties Union, and U.S. Congressman John Conyers, filed lawsuits against the court for holding a closed hearing.

In response, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds ruled that future hearings on Haddad’s case should be open. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati affirmed the ruling in August.

As Rabih Haddad continued to be incarcerated at the Monroe County Jail in Monroe, Michigan, Judge Edmunds on September 17 ordered that Haddad should be freed in 10 days or have a new hearing open to the news media and the public with a different immigration judge.

"The Justice Department has not tied Haddad to any specific terrorist actions, and it has not said how any specific funds administered by Global Relief supported terrorist groups. It hasn’t said how any of his trips to Pakistan or Afghanistan were improper. Much of the evidence it has gathered against Haddad still has not been released to the public," noted a recent Detroit News article.

A continuance of the bond hearing was scheduled for October 22. Another deportation hearing is scheduled for the following day.  
 
 
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