20 January 2010
For immediate
releaseFor the first time in a week, journalist Jared Malsin was
allowed to use his mobile phone on Wednesday morning to inform Ma'an that he was
being placed onto an El Al flight to New York.
He sounded shaken and
confused. He said he did not know why he was not being flown to Prague, where he
was expected to be sent, saying only that flying there "would create problems."
He said he was in an armored vehicle that was transporting him to the airport
gate.
On Tuesday, Tel Aviv District Judge Kobi Vardi ordered that a
hearing be scheduled to consider the Israeli Ministry of the Interior's decision
to deport the journalist. Following the call, lawyer Castro Daoud went to the
airport detention facility where Malsin has been kept for the past week to
deliver the news.
At about 2:30 pm, Daoud left the detention center and
filed a motion requesting that Jared be permitted to leave the country while the
hearing and case proceed in his absence. As the Attorney General's Office
insisted that Malsin not be permitted to attend his hearing, Daoud argued that
it was no longer necessary to keep him confined to his cell in the detention
center.
At about 4:30pm, staff from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv notified
Malsin’s parents in the US state of New Hampshire that he would be on the next
flight to Prague, even though Justice Vardi had not ruled on Daoud’s motion to
let Malsin travel and still pursue the case.
At about 7:30pm, Daoud
expressed shock after he received notification that a motion was signed by
Malsin requesting his deportation challenge be annulled. Justice Vardi has
closed the case on Malsin’s deportation order one week after it was filed.
Ma’an is deeply concerned that there was no lawyer present when Malsin
apparently filed this independent motion, which was sent from the Ministry of
the Interior and not his legal representative, who had just left. It is
inexplicable that Malsin would knowingly drop the legal challenge after his
first major success.
Without jumping to conclusions, Ma’an wants to be
sure these events did not take place under duress, and is consequently concerned
that Malsin’s lawyer and parents were prevented from reaching him during the 24
hours before the deportation to clarify what happened between 2:30 and 4:30pm on
Tuesday afternoon.
See the following for more
information:On the reaction of international press
associations:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254583On
Jared’s fight to overturn the deportation order:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254021On
the timeline of Jared’s detention and questioning:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=254589For
further inquiries, please contact:For the most updated version
of this news release, click here:
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=253864