Kassm I just read that Parlak got a high chance to be released witout trial and they think if he go to trial very likely Government will loose, there for they want him to be released without a trial.
Read here The Associated Press!
Lawyer trying to negotiate release of Parlak in terrorism case
07/05/2005 The Associated Press - By Sarah Karush
DETROIT -- A hearing on an appeal over the detention of a Kurdish immigrant whom the government accuses of terrorism was postponed Friday amid negotiations over his possible release.
U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said the hearing that was to have taken place Friday on Ibrahim Parlak’s petition instead would be held Wednesday by telephone.
Parlak, 43, has been in jail since his July 29 arrest and is appealing a judge’s December order to deport him to Turkey. His case has inspired strong support in and around Harbert, the Lake Michigan resort town where he runs his own restaurant.
"At this point, the government and Parlak’s attorneys are trying to work out a resolution (on his detention) without taking this to trial," said Jay Marhoefer, a Chicago attorney for Parlak said after Friday’s brief court session. "We will know by Wednesday whether or not a resolution can be reached."
Assistant U.S. Attorney L. Michael Wicks confirmed that the parties were talking.
The government wants to deport Parlak because of his past ties to the group PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, now known as KONGRA-GEL, in Turkey. The U.S. State Department classified the PKK as a terrorist group in 1997.
In their petition for his release filed with the U.S. District Court in March, Parlak’s lawyers argued that his incarceration lacks any legal or factual basis. They say the government has failed to show that he is either a danger to anyone or a flight risk.
Parlak himself was not in court Friday. His friends were cautiously optimistic.
"This is the one event I did not expect," said Martin Dzuris, a spokesman for supporters. "It’s the first time where we don’t have bad news right flat out."
Parlak attorney David Nacht said a negotiated release might be in everyone’s best interest. Even if Cohn rules in Parlak’s favor, the government likely would appeal, and Parlak would be released only if a higher court agrees. At the same time, the government might prefer to release Parlak on its own, rather than risk a precedent-setting ruling in Parlak’s favor, Nacht said.
Parlak, who was granted asylum in 1992, owns a Kurdish restaurant, Cafe Gulistan, in Harbert. His many vocal friends and supporters, who so far have raised $106,000 for his defense and include film critic Roger Ebert, say he is a victim of post-Sept. 11 hysteria on the part of the government and never was involved in violence. They say he is being punished simply for resisting oppression of Kurds in Turkey and could face reprisals if he is sent back there.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says Parlak did not disclose important details about his separatist activities in his original asylum application and also omitted his conviction in Turkey from subsequent immigration forms.
Parlak was convicted in Turkey in 1988 of engaging in separatist activities. The Turkish government said he was involved in a fire-fight on the Syrian-Turkish border in which two Turkish soldiers were killed. Parlak maintains he played no role in the shootings.
Parlak’s lawyers point out that the Turkish security court system that convicted him has since been abolished because of international pressure. Human rights groups say the courts relied on confessions extracted by torture, and the U.S. government has called them unfair.
In December, following a two-day hearing in U.S. Immigration Court in Detroit, Judge Elizabeth Hacker ruled that the government had sufficiently proved its case and ordered Parlak deported. His case now is pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.
On the Net:
Web site of Parlak’s supporters:
http://www.freeibrahim.com
Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 7:41 pm