Lawyers for an American citizen, recently released from an Iraqi prison following a terrorism-related conviction, say the man has recently been detained in Turkey at the behest of the US government.
Inpetition filed Tuesdayin federal court in Washington, DC, lawyers for Shawki Ahmad Sharif Omar, who was born in Kuwait but became a US citizen in the 1980s, claim that the US is working with Turkish officials to prevent him from returning to the US. He is being held in a Turkish “deportation facility,” but Omar’s lawyers argue that he is in the “custody” of the U.S. government, and are asking a federal judge to order his release and return.
The case was assigned to US District Judge John Bates, an appointee of George W. Bush.
Omar, who is also a citizen of Jordan, was arrested by US forces in Iraq in 2004 for allegedly providing support to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. He attracted international attention after describing the abuse and torture he experienced while under US military protection. After the United States extradited him to Iraqi authorities in 2011, he was convicted of immigration violations and — years later — terrorism charges that kept him in prison until this past April.
In total, Omar has spent more than the last 22 years in detention centers and prisons. His story is complex and obscure, shrouded in layers of government secrecy and decades of court records.Evidence has been providedand the US governmentduring the 2008 Supreme Court battledue to efforts to take him under Iraqi protection, Omar was portrayed as Zarqawi’s mastermind “supporting his group’s relationship with other terrorist groups, bringing foreign fighters into Iraq, and planning and executing kidnappings.”
But his allies have claimed that the US evidence for the allegations was weak and never proven. Omar and his allies have also claimed that Iraqi legal proceedings were unfair and denied him due process. His case is doneinternational headlinesfor years.
Omar’s lawyers say he was granted a temporary US passport after his release from Iraqi custody in April but was nevertheless added to a no-fly list and barred from traveling to the US to join his family – which includes his US citizen wife and children.
The United States has wide latitude to include even its own citizens on the no-fly list, a secret list of people believed to be a threat to US national security due to their relationships, foreign travel and other personal information. But Omar’s claim that Turkish authorities are holding him at the behest of the United States raises new questions about the legal authority of the United States to cooperate with foreign governments on matters of border security and immigration.
It is not unusual for the United States to ask another country to detain American citizens as a means of preventing their re-entry, regardless of their criminal record.
Turkish officials detained Omar and took him to a detention center, where he has been for the past week in an undisclosed location, according to his request. The filing alleges that the officers told Omar that they were executing a request from US authorities. The complaint includes transcripts of communications with State Department officials who acknowledged Omar’s detention and said they were working with their Turkish counterparts to ensure his welfare.
“The State cannot now say that it has no control over Plaintiff’s detention when it has exercised its authority to intervene on his behalf,” his attorneys wrote.
They said that Omar “is in danger of being transferred to a country where he faces the risk of torture, including Jordan – a country that has questioned his family members about his activities or torture in Turkey at the behest of the United States, considering the fact that he has already been handed over to the country where American officials tortured him.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Transportation Security Administration and accordingly the no-fly list, referred POLITICO to the FBI, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The State Department and the US Embassy in Turkey also did not respond to requests for comment.
Omar’s attorney, Curtis Doebbler, declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
The argument by Omar’s lawyers is similar to that raised by more than 100 Venezuelans who were suddenly deported to El Salvador last year after President Donald Trump used the Alien Enemy Act to call members of a violent international gang. Although they were quickly flown into Salvadoran custody – despite efforts by a federal judge to block the extradition – the men claimed they were still in US “custody”, claiming the Trump administration had the power to extradite them.
It is also the latest step in a nearly two-decade legal battle for Omar. Omar has claimed that he and his wife, who was pregnant at the time, were tortured at Abu Ghraib prison, a US-owned detention center 20 miles from Baghdad where US servicemen and intelligence officials were accused of widespread abuse, including sexual abuse and torture of prisoners. The lawsuit claims Omar received compensation from the US government for his experience at Abu Ghraib.
In 2011, he was transferred to Iraqi custody and convicted of allegedly being part of an “illegal group” and entering the country illegally – even though he entered with his US passport (which was in the hands of US authorities). A witness whose testimony reduced Omar’s guilt on charges that he was part of an “illegal group” later recanted.
Courts have previously ruled against the US government when it has violated the rights of US citizens accused of having ties to terrorist organizations. In 2018, a US court ruled in favor of two US-Saudi citizens accused of fighting on behalf of ISIS in Syria, whom the US tried to send to another country – possibly Saudi Arabia.
