BRASILIA, (Reuters) – Brazil has deported a Palestinian member of Hamas and his family at the request of U.S. State Department, Brazilian federal police sources told Reuters yesterday.
Muslim M. A. Abuumar and his 7-month pregnant wife, his son and mother-in-law, were detained entering the country at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport and put on a Qatar Airways flight back to Doha on Sunday, the sources said.
“The request came from the U.S. Department of State,” a senior federal police officer said. “It was proven before a judge that he was deeply involved with Hamas,” he said.
A federal judge in Sao Paulo stopped the deportation on Saturday and requested information from the police, which when provided led her to approve deporting Abuumar and his family.
According to the injunction filed by Abuumar’s lawyer, Bruno Henrique de Moura, the Palestinian family was detained by police on entry at Guarulhos airport without a warrant. It said they were coming to visit his brother who lives in Brazil.
Abuumar, aged 37, is executive director of the Asia Middle East Center, and his wife is Malaysian and his children Malaysian-born, the injunction said.
A police source said Abuumar has first flown to Brazil last year, arriving on Jan. 1, the day leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn into office.
Palestinian ambassador in Brasilia, Ibrahim Al Zeben, said nobody officially contacted the embassy about Abuumar. “We trust Brazilian policy,” he added in a message to Reuters.
Lawyer Moura said Brazilian police “simply agreed to a U.S. request that was politically-motivated” and based on Abuumar’s name appearing on the U.S. government’s terrorist watchlist.
