DETROIT, Michigan, 26 November 2002 — The head of US-based Muslim charity Global Relief Foundation, said to have links with Al-Qaeda, has been ordered deported from the United States along with his family, the Department of Justice confirmed yesterday. An immigration judge in Detroit Friday denied Rabih Haddad’s request for asylum and ordered him expelled from the United States, saying he represented a “substantial risk,” to US national security, the Justice Department said. Haddad’s lawyer, Noel Saleh, told the Chicago Tribune that he would appeal the decision, which will automatically stay the deportations. Haddad was detained in December on an expired tourist visa. The US government froze the assets of the charity on the same day, and the US Treasury Department subsequently declared the charity a terrorist organization. (AFP)
