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CNN Live At Daybreak
Mistaken Identity Leads to Detainment In New Jersey
Aired December 11, 2001 - 05:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: His name is Mohamed Khan and like so many others, the events of September 11 changed his life. Mohamed Khan is a common name in Pakistan and that has led to what Khan calls a case of mistaken identity and weeks in jail.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick picks up his story.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's store manager for a major electronics company, living on Long Island with his wife Shaheen and their three American born children. Yet for the last month and a half, Mohamed Azmin Khan has been locked up at Passaic County Jail in New Jersey, where he called CNN.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Mohamed?
MOHAMED AZMIN KHAN, DETAINEE: I'm right here.
They're doing a roll call right now to make sure everybody is in the jail.
FEYERICK: Khan is a tax paying, political asylum seeking U.S. resident. Aside from parking tickets, he's never been in trouble with the law. So why is he in jail? He says FBI agents told him they got the wrong guy.
KHAN: This is not the Mohamed Khan we need. They're actually looking for some other Mohamed Khan.
FEYERICK: The FBI will not comment. But CNN has learned that a week after Mohamed Azmin Khan was taken into INS custody, another man, Mohamed Asif Khan, was rounded up by FBI and INS agents.
That Mohamed A. Khan is also in jail, also in New Jersey. Mohamed Khan is one of the most common Pakistani names. Asked about the two being detained, an INS spokesman said he can't confirm nor deny any information regarding detention issues.
Following the September 11th attacks, President Bush signed the Patriot Act, giving the attorney general up to six months to detain people considered a danger to national security.
(on camera): Mohamed Azmin Khan works at this electronics store in Brooklyn. The owner says he's very well liked by customers and co- workers and that he's done a terrific job, working his way up from salesman to store manager.
(voice-over): And he is here legally. Three years ago, Khan was denied political asylum because Pakistan's government changed since he fled. He's been appealing ever since.
ROLAND GELL, KHAN'S ATTORNEY: He has been very, very active in his community. They certainly know where he is. He has been granted work authorization. He's filed his taxes. A guy like that would never have been picked up by INS before September 11.
FEYERICK: The question remains who is the real Mohamed Khan the FBI seems to be looking for? What's the reason? And are there more men with the same name in custody? The FBI won't say. For Shaheen Khan, whose once well off family is now facing bankruptcy, that has made her husband's detention all the more unbearable.
SHAHEEN KHAN, WIFE OF DETAINEE: It's not fair. It's not fair to my kids. It's not fair to my husband, because he is no criminal. He has no charges. He is not a bad man.
FEYERICK: Khan remains locked up waiting for his INS hearing. His wife jumps each time the phone rings, crushed when he says he's still not free to come home.
SHAHEEN KHAN: OK. OK. Take care, honey. Bye-bye. Ok, bye. God bless you.
FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Hicksville, New York.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LIN: Those are the details of Mohamed Khan's story.
But CNN's Aaron Brown wanted to know more. Last night on CNN's NEWS NIGHT, he spoke with Khan's attorney, Roland Gell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GELL: He has an appeal pending before the board of immigration appeals. He had been given work authorization. He was working legally. He had been a member of society, hardworking, active in his community. They certainly knew where he was, that is, the Immigration Service knew where he was. No, I don't think there was anything unusual or out of kilter about his placement.
AARON BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK. Do you have any idea how he ended up in jail at all --
GELL: Well, I --
BROWN: ... what happened here? How did they get to him?
GELL: Well, they got to him probably the same way they get to most people, and that's based on a tip. A neighbor, a friend, someone that says this fellow is a little suspicious, maybe you should check this guy out. That's how I was told they found him, that somebody complained about him.
BROWN: And how long after he was taken into -- had you been dealing with him prior to his -- is arrest the right word?
GELL: Well, no. Well, arrest, sure. That's what it was.
BROWN: OK.
GELL: He was arrested and he was detained. He's detained at Passaic County Jail. I wasn't his lawyer handling the original political asylum or the appeals that are brought before the BIA. I have taken the case up recently.
BROWN: OK. Has he had trouble communicating with you? I mean we've heard stories about the conditions under which some detainees are being kept. They don't have access to legal counsel, they can make only one phone call. Are any of those issues coming into play?
GELL: No, not really. He is able to communicate with me. It's very expensive to communicate, though. The fact is they only allow them their own phone cards and it's $1.50 a minute and it's very expensive for a guy like this to talk to me and talk to his family and it's tough for the fellow, sure.
BROWN: And give me a sense of his spirits at this point.
GELL: Well, he's not happy. He has got a family who, they love him very much...
BROWN: Does he -- I mean, let me, does he in any sense appreciate or understand or think about the fact that there was this horrible trauma on, on September 11 and that the country has gone through an extraordinary time and he's sort of gotten caught up in it?
GELL: Well, he does. Absolutely he does. He was terrorized by what happened, just as we all were terrorized by what happened. He has been a member of this community for a long, long time here in New York. He loves New York. He was touched by the tragedy. I've heard him cry myself about it. We've all cried about it. I don't think Mohamed is any different than any of us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIN: CNN contacted the Justice Department about this but we were told it's department policy not to comment on detainees.
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