Denies fast-track to electric chair...

Judge denies fast-track case for woman seeking to return to U.S. after defecting from ISIS

By MATTHEW CHOI

A federal judge on Monday denied a request to fast track the case of a woman seeking to return to the United States after defecting from ISIS.

But the judge did not rule on the U.S. citizenship of Hoda Muthana, whom President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called a foreign terrorist and ineligible to return to the United states.

Muthana, who was born to a former Yemeni diplomat in the U.S., is being held in a refugee camp held by Syrian rebels after fleeing from ISIS, which she joined at 19. Lawyers working on her behalf say she has expressed remorse and wants to come home.

But both Trump and Pompeo argue she is not a citizen because her father enjoyed diplomatic immunity when she was born, barring her from birthright citizenship. Her family’s lawyers argue she has been granted a U.S. passport twice and though the U.S. government had not received notice that her father was no longer a diplomat at the time of her birth, he was fired by the Yemeni mission more than a month before Muthana was born.

During a hearing at the U.S. District Court for D.C., Judge Reggie Walton said the lawyers working on behalf of Muthana presented a “good point” that rejecting her claims to citizenship could set a precedent that would allow foreign countries to abuse diplomatic immunity to commit espionage.

Charles Swift, the Muthanas’ laywer, argued that if the court rules that Muthana’s father, Ahmed Ali Muthana, enjoyed diplomatic immunity after getting fired by the Yemeni mission, it would set a precedent allowing foreign governments to terminate a diplomat and fail to report it, opening a window for the former diplomat to commit crimes with diplomatic immunity and without the country taking responsibility.

Walton did not rule on her citizenship but did say Swift’s argument on Muthana’s father’s diplomatic status had merit. Still, he said, “Just because she received a U.S. passport does not mean she is a U.S. citizen.”

However, on the question of the court ordering Muthana’s return, Walton seemed much more hesitant. Swift requested an expedited case to quicken Muthana’s return to the U.S., saying that she was in danger in the camp and that the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Syria could make it impossible to retrieve her in the future.

But Walton rejected the request, saying there was no solid evidence she was being mistreated in the camp or that the status of U.S. troops in Syria had any irreparable impact on Muthana.

“Obviously there is harm if someone is denied the rights of citizenship of the United States,” Walton said.

But “the harm is not irreparable harm,” Walton added.

Scott Stewart, representing Trump and Pompeo, argued that it was “speculative” that Muthana was in immediate danger in Syria, saying she has access and made statements to the media and that a court could not order an operation to negotiate her return to the United States.

Stewart also said the U.S. government notified Muthana that it intended to revoke her passport in 2016 and she chose not to fight the decision. Swift said she was out of the country at the time, but Stewart maintained she had ample opportunity to prove her case before “she finds herself in a situation apparently she no longer likes abroad.”

“She did this by all indications of her own free will,” Stewart said.

Swift has maintained that Muthana is willing to be arrested for aiding a terrorist organization if she were to return to the United States. Muthana has a child, who is a minor, in Syria.

“We didn’t take this case to defend her actions,” Swift told reporters after the hearing. “We took it to defend her rights of citizenship.”