Man jailed for years on secret evidence faces deportation

TAMPA, Fla. -- A Palestinian man who was held for 3 1/2 years on secret evidence was arrested Saturday for violating his visa and will be deported as a threat to national security, the Department of Justice said Saturday.

The Justice Department said in a statement Saturday that Mazen Al-Najjar has ties to alleged terrorist front organizations, including a University of South Florida Islamic studies group.

Martin Schwartz, an attorney for Al-Najjar, said he would fight the decision.

"The government is using him as a guinea pig to test their powers to detain foreigners," Schwartz said. "The government is aware Dr. Al-Najjar has no travel documents allowing him re-entry to the United Arab Emirates or any other country."

The arrest came after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upheld Al-Najjar's final deportation order, which would send him to the United Arab Emirates. Al-Najjar lived there before coming to the United States in the 1980s.

Al-Najjar was being held Saturday at the Federal Correctional Institution at Coleman, about 65 miles north of Tampa.

Al-Najjar, whose visa expired several years ago, was arrested in 1997 on secret evidence as a threat to national security. He spent 3 1/2 years in prison based on a one-sentence summary of classified evidence against him before he was freed in December 2000.