And Sameeh Hammoudeh has been released from jail. Hammoudeh, a Palestinian living in Florida, was charged as a co-conspirator in the government’s terrorism case against jailed Palestinian professor and activist Sami al-Arian. Hammoudeh remained in prison for months despite having been found not guilty of all charges against him. Hammoudeh was immediately escorted to the Miami airport for deportation to his family’s home in Ramallah, in the Occupied Territories. His deportation came just two days before a court-ordered deadline that would have forced authorities to explain why they were keeping him in detention. Hammoudeh spoke to Democracy Now from his prison cell earlier this month.

• Sameeh Hammoudeh: “Everything was fabrication. Everything was a mere lie, sad lies. This is what they did, and this is what they are insisting on doing to me and to continue my ordeal, only because I am a stateless Palestinian, that nobody is going to care about me, nobody is going to talk about my case. I am not a Christian. I am not a Jew. I am not a citizen of a powerful country that can ask about my destiny, about why the American government is abusing my rights. And I am very upset. I am very frustrated, and I think the American government now is taking the United States into a very dangerous situation, where they are violating everything that belongs to human dignity and to human rights. They are violating all the traditions of the United States. They are violating everything human in this life.”