Detained pro-Palestinian activist denied legal calls, lawyer tells US court

NEW YORK: A leader of US student protests against Israel´s war in Gaza slated for removal has been denied legal advice, a judge heard on Wednesday, after US President Donald Trump vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian student demonstrators.

Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, one of the most prominent faces of the protest movement that erupted in response to Israel´s conduct of the war, was arrested and taken to Louisiana over the weekend, sparking protests.

The government has not accused Khalil of breaking any laws, suggesting instead that his permanent residency was being revoked over his involvement in the protests.

His arrest has triggered outrage from critics of the Trump administration as well as free speech advocates, including some on the political right, who say such a move has a chilling effect on freedom of expression.

Khalil had only spoken to lawyers on a monitored phone line from Louisiana and had not yet had a privileged conversation with them, his attorney Ramzi Kaseem told a federal court in New York on Wednesday.

He was “taken at night as he walked home with his wife and taken 1,000 miles away to Louisiana,” Kaseem told the court, noting Khalil´s wife, a US citizen, is eight months pregnant with their first child.

Khalil was “detained and processed for deportation... because he was in advocacy of Palestinian rights.”

“Help us gain more regular access -- we have not been able to confer -- our access to our client is severely limited.”