Man on hunger strike to go free

ST. LOUIS -- An Egyptian aircraft mechanic detained on immigration charges for more than two months will be released from jail next week and allowed to fly home, his lawyer said Friday.

Osama El Far, 30, was an airplane mechanic at Lambert Airport in St. Louis before he was detained Sept. 24 for overstaying his student visa. El Far is being held in the Mississippi County Jail in Charleston for the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Dorothy Harper, El Far's immigration lawyer, told a small band of anti-war protesters in downtown St. Louis Friday that federal authorities would allow him to fly from Lambert to New York on Tuesday. El Far has said he is willing to go back to Egypt.

Officials have asked El Far if he had any connection to, or knowledge of, the Sept. 11 suicide hijackings that killed about 4,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. According to court documents, El Far's denials have passed a polygraph test.

Harper said federal authorities never told her much about why El Far was held or why he is now being released. The INS wanted him held despite his insistence that he knew nothing about the attacks, Harper said. El Far has admitted to overstaying his student visa to get a job.

"Somebody far up in Washington was in control -- I don't know who that was -- and apparently just wanted to look in his background," Harper said. "The FBI here had cleared him long ago."