(25 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Washington – 25 March 2025
1. Various of crowed gathered, chanting in Georgetown University campus
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Lara Smith, Georgetown University Professor, Faculty Member:
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"My colleagues have already noted how these detentions of our colleagues, scholars and students like Dr. Suri, like Mohammad Khalil, like Momodou Taal, are linked to a wider pattern, both historic and increasingly repressive, of academic, intellectual and ideological repression, both in the US and around the world. The current escalation is, is a longstanding and well-documented pattern that has only increased. We demand Dr. Suri’s release."
3. Various of people holding signs
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Nader Hashemi, Georgetown University Associate Professor:
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"If you think what’s happening right now is a passing, passing moment, the crackdown, the repression, the arrests. I’m here to tell you, you need to think again. What we’re seeing right now is a very clear and steady transition toward authoritarianism. I’ve studied this my entire life. This is how it begins. And unless people stand up and push back against this authoritarian juggernaut, it’s only going to get worse."
5. People holding a sign reading "Free Dr. Badar Khan Suri"
STORYLINE:
Georgetown University students and academics called for the release of Badar Khan Suri and other academics detained and accused of spreading Hamas propaganda in the latest battle over speech on U.S. college campuses.
Speaking at a rally held in campus Tuesday, Georgetown University faculty member Dr. Lara Smith told a crowd that the arrests are "linked to a wider pattern, both historic and increasingly repressive, of academic, intellectual and ideological repression, both in the US and around the world."
"We demand Dr. Suri’s release," said Smith. "But we also insist and demand that Georgetown call for Dr. Suri’s immediate release."
A federal judge on Thursday ordered immigration officials not to deport Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University scholar that the government detained, until the court has had a chance to rule.
Suri is a postdoctoral scholar and citizen of India.
A legal filing by Suri’s lawyer says he was arrested last Monday night outside of his Virginia home by masked officers who identified themselves as Department of Homeland Security agents.
A government website says he was later taken to a detention facility in Louisiana.
His lawyers are seeking his immediate release and to halt deportation proceedings through their habeas motion filed last Tuesday against the Trump administration.
Suri was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and determined to be deportable by the Secretary of State’s office, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said on the social platform X.
Suri’s attorney wrote in an earlier court filing that Suri was targeted because of his social media posts and his wife’s “identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.”
“Dr. Suri is an academic, not an activist," his attorney Hassan Ahmad wrote in a court filing on Thursday. “But he spoke out on social media about his views on the Israel-Gaza war. Even more so, his wife is an outspoken critic of the Israeli government and the violence it has perpetrated against Palestinians.”
Suri’s attorney argued that federal authorities have provided no evidence that he’s committed any crimes and that his detention violates his free speech and due process rights.
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