NJ Teacher Sentenced To Death In Middle East Faces Deportation

A New Jersey physics teacher was detained this past week by ICE, even though he was given a death sentence in the Middle East and now faces likely deportation.

Ahmed AbdelBasit Mohammad, a teacher in Union City, was seeking asylum in the United States because of what was described as brutal political persecution in Egypt, according to the website "SaveBasit." Instead, he was detained by ICE outside his Jersey City home on his way to work at the Rising Star Academy, where he teaches physics to high school students.

ICE confirmed that AbdelBasit Mohammad was arrested last week on immigration charges and is being held in Elizabeth Detention Center. "ICE cannot comment on the other part of your inquiry," said Emilio Dabul, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have reported on his case and have supported his asylum application, according to the site, which points to a petition that seeks his amnesty. "Denying Ahmed's asylum and deporting him is sending an innocent man to his imminent death," according to the site. "Sign this petition today to help save Ahmed’s life."

AbdelBasit Mohammad left Egypt and got a job at Qatar University, but in May 2016 an Egyptian military court sentenced him to death in absentia after he and 27 others were convicted of terrorism charges, according to nj.com. Human Rights Watch wrote that the military trial denied the men "basic due process rights and relied on confessions that the defendants said were obtained under torture."

AbdelBasit Mohammad is a husband and father of two children who came to the United States in June 2016 on a visitor visa and applied for asylum two months later, according to nj.com. He was given permission to work legally while his case was being processed and, when the visa expired, he was permitted to continue working with a pending asylum application.

Human Rights Watch says AbdelBasit Mohammad is among a list of defendants who renounced their confessions under torture. He was was expelled from Cairo University in 2015 for organizing peaceful protests against the military’s removal of former President Mohamed Morsy and human rights abuses by the security forces.

With reporting by Katie Kausch

Photo courtesy of SaveBasit