IP: Two US citizens -- Falsely accused of passport alteration -- held for two months

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-attacks-altered-passports1121nov21.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines

LABELLE, Fla. -- A man of Palestinian descent was released after being 
jailed for more than two months when federal authorities dropped charges 
that he altered his U.S. passport by laminating it.

Nacer Mustafa, 24, had been jailed as a national security risk by federal 
officials in Texas. The same charges against his father, Fathi Mustafa, 66, 
also were dropped Tuesday. The elder Mustafa was free on bond and ordered 
to wear a computerized monitoring device.

A laboratory analysis of the passports determined neither was altered.

"The laboratory analysis showed that the laminate had most likely split and 
was not an additional laminate," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman wrote 
in his motion to dismiss the charges.

"You could say this was a miscarriage of justice," said Dan Gerson, a 
Houston attorney representing the family. "There's a potential here ... to 
sue the government."

The Mustafas were arrested Sept. 14 at Bush Intercontinental Airport in 
Houston as they entered the United States from Mexico. A federal agent said 
there was a second layer of lamination on their passports.

Both men are U.S. citizens and run a small department store in LaBelle, 
east of Fort Myers.

Fathi Mustafa said Tuesday he was glad his and his son's names have been 
cleared, and that he will soon be reunited with his son. Nacer Mustafa was 
expected to return home this week.

Fathi Mustafa has spent the last six weeks wearing a computerized ankle 
bracelet. The Mustafas said they must wait for paperwork from Texas to be 
sent to the federal courthouse in Fort Myers before the monitoring device 
can be removed.

"I have been living this hell," he said.

Fathi Mustafa, a citizen for nearly 40 years, said doesn't understand the 
treatment by the United States.

"I've known from the first time that nothing was wrong with our passports," 
he said. "But we don't want to argue right now, we are just thanking God 
he's out of jail."


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