AP Wire | 03/22/2006 | Sri Lankan released after more... -
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Published on: 3/22/2006
Last Visited: 3/22/2006
Ahilan Nadarajah was released late Tuesday and was staying with members of the Sri Lankan community in the Los Angeles area, said Elizabeth Brennan of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Nadarajah's release last week, saying the government was violating federal law by holding him without being charged and without the possibility of deportation in the "foreseeable future."
Nadarajah, 26, fled his homeland nearly five years ago after he said Sri Lankan government forces tortured him for allegedly being a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
He arrived in the United States in October 2001, and had been held at the Otay Mesa detention center south of San Diego ever since.