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| Hearing in Ohio for 11 Israelis arrested after Sept. 11 attacks |
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| se7en |
| 11/21/01 at 15:37:05 |
| By Yam Yehoshua Ha'aretz Correspondent Eleven Israelis being held in Ohio for illegally working in the United States will appear before a federal immigration judge on Tuesday. The Israelis were arrested shortly after the September 11 terror attacks. According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, some 100 Israelis have been arrested throughout the U.S. as part of a crackdown on illegal foreign workers following the terror attacks. Other Israelis are being held in Saint Louis, Sacramento and Philadelphia. In ten days, five Israelis who were arrested in New York immediately after the attacks, are to return to Israel after their deportation orders have been signed. The Israelis held in Ohio are: Rachel Sabag, Uri Ben-Tur, Shulamit Amram, Liron Diamant, Shahar Barkai, Liron Arbus, Benny Cohen, Yaniv Hani, Asaf Mansour, Itay Hashay and Oren Bar. They arrived in the United States separately and worked -probably without valid work visas- for an Israeli employer selling toys in a Cleveland mall. According to the families, on October 31 FBI agents broke into the homes of ten of the Israelis and transferred them to an FBI installation where they were interrogated for three days. Another Israeli, Oren Bar, was arrested in a similar manner on November 1. After three days the men were transferred to a jail in south Cleveland and the women were transferred to a municipal jail in Ohio. Although relatives of the Israelis understand the predicament faced by the U.S. in the wake of the terror attacks, they expressed frustration at the arrests. Ziona Mansour, Asaf's mother, told Ha'aretz: "At the previous hearing on Friday the judge wanted to deport them, but the FBI had arguments about fake passports and that they worked for the Mossad. I know the Americans are under pressure, but we are not a hostile country and we are not dealing with murder. We contacted the Foreign Ministry but they said they will not get involved in legal procedures." Bat Chen Sabag, Rachel's sister said, "The situation is so absurd that they asked my sister whether she knew how to prepare or neutralize bombs. One of the girls called and said they were handcuffed to chairs and that they were encouraged not to hire lawyers because that would delay their release. The Israelis' attorney, David Leopold said, "The detained were not charged with working for the Mossad. They may have been asked about it in the investigation. This is a special case because they all have valid visas, but not work visas. Similar trials are usually held against people with invalid visas." "I believe that in this hearing they will be offered 'voluntary deportation' orders, because until now the FBI arguments were vague," he said. "There is a chance that the state would appeal the decision, and this chance is increased because of the atmosphere since the September 11 attacks." Foreign Ministry's Irit Shtoper, who is handling the affair, warned that Israelis should be aware of the risk they take if they choose to work illegally in the United States. "Everyone should know that people arrested nowadays in the United States are immediately investigated by the FBI," she said. "A person who decides to risk working illegally should take into consideration the fact that after September 11 the United States reinforces the law at any stake." "Our Foreign Ministry does not get involved, just as we would not like someone to be involved in our legal procedures," she added. "Our only involvement is to try and check the jail conditions and to give recommendations to the families." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=94305&contra ssID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0 |
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