INS DETAINEE FIGHTS AGENCY EFFORTS TO FORCE-FEED HIM

An INS detainee who went on a hunger strike protesting his detention has sued the INS to stop the agency from force-feeding him.  The INS considers Nabil Soliman, a citizen of Egypt, to be a terrorist based on his conviction in Egypt of involvement in the assassination of former Egyptian Prime Minister Anwar Sadat.  He has been in INS detention for more than three and a half years.

Soliman is subject to a final order of deportation, but cannot be returned to Egypt because it is likely that he would face torture there.  According to the INS, it has asked at least six other countries to accept him, all of which have refused.  The INS will not release him from detention because it believes that he would be a threat to the public safety.  Soliman claims that he is not the person convicted in Egypt, but merely has a similar name.

He began his protest after being transferred to a detention facility in Alabama earlier this year.  His condition had so deteriorated by August that the INS obtained a court order authorizing the agency to force-feed him.  However, his health was so compromised that he was transferred to a hospital in South Carolina.  He still refused to eat, and a federal judge there refused to allow the INS to force-feed him.  The INS transferred him back to Alabama where it was authorized to feed him.

A ruling on whether the INS can force feed him has been delayed until January.  In the meantime, Soliman has agreed to allow the INS to feed him.  The judge hearing the case has also requested the INS to present evidence that Soliman is the person convicted in Egypt.