PHILADELPHIA - The U.S. government cannot deport an Egyptian man accused of murder in his homeland because of the risk he would be tortured if he were returned, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.
The government argued that Egyptian authorities had provided diplomatic assurances that Sameh Khouzam, 38, would not be tortured if he were sent back.
But U.S. District Judge Thomas Vanaskie of the middle district of Pennsylvania said the government had blocked any independent assessment of those assurances.
He ordered that Khouzam be released from the Pennsylvania prison where he has been held almost continuously since 1998.
"In light of the Government's refusal to expose the Egyptian diplomatic assurance to any sort of impartial review, the Government may not proceed with the removal of Khouzam," Vanaskie wrote in a 53-page decision.
The government immediately appealed and Vanaskie granted a 5-day stay, during which a federal appeals court will hear the case. Meanwhile, Khouzam remains in prison.
Khouzam, a Coptic Christian, says Egyptian authorities tried to force him to convert to Islam under torture.
He tried to enter the United States in 1998 but was refused admission and his visa was canceled after Egypt said he was a suspect in a murder case, a charge disputed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which represented him in court.
He has been in custody since then -- except for about a year leading up to May 2007, when he was detained again pending deportation.
The case is the first test of whether the U.S. government can legally deport people on the basis of diplomatic assurances, said Judy Rabinovitz, an ACLU attorney.
Vanaskie said the government was "misplaced" in its reliance on a 1948 case to argue that the judiciary may not intervene when the President is exercising his authority to conduct foreign relations.
"Not even the President of the United States has the authority to sacrifice on the altar of foreign relations the right to be free from torture," the judge wrote.
Douglas Ginsburg, a government lawyer who argued for Khouzam's removal, did not return phone calls seeking comment.