Doctor of RI deported allegedly had photos of Hezbollah, leaders of Iran on his phone, prosecutors say

Boston – before she was deported last weekto Rhode Island doctor He was interrogated by the Customs and Border Patrol agents of the United States at Logan Airport about photos on his phone from the supreme leader of Iran and a leader of the terrorist group, Hezbollah, federal prosecutors wrote in documents presented in the Court on Monday.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh34, a kidney transplant doctor and assistant professor at Brown Medicine and Rhode Island hospital, traveled to Lebanon to see his parents, but he was prevented from re -entered the United States at the airport on Thursday night and was then put on a flight to Paris.

In new documents presented in the United States District Court in Massachusetts, prosecutors wrote that Alawieh was questioned Thursday about photos on his phone of Hassan NasrallahThe late leader of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, as well as images of “fighters and martyrs.”

“Dr. Alawieh declared that Nasrallah is the leader of Hezbollah and as a Shiite Muslim, he is highly appreciated in the Shiite community as a religious figure,” prosecutors wrote. “According to Dr. Alawieh, she follows him for her religious and spiritual teachings and not for her policy.”

The authorities also alleged that Alawieh had “multiple” photos on his telephone of Ayatolá Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran.

“After the discovery of these photos and videos, customs and the border patrol questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that their true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” prosecutors wrote.

On Friday, Judge Leo T. Sorokin, of the United States District Court in Massachusetts, ordered the government not to move Alawieh out of the Massachusetts district without a 48 -hour notice to be able to consider a request for habeas corpus, which said Alawieh had a valid visa that authorized his entrance to the country.

But Alawieh was put on a flight to Paris on Friday night, and was then transferred back to Lebanon, arriving on Sunday morning, according to his colleagues and lawyers.

His lawyers presented an apparent violation notice, claiming that the government “had a real warning of the order of this court and deliberately disobey the order of this court.”

On Sunday, Sorokin ordered the government to respond that statement and explain why Alawieh was deported even after ordering that he was not withdrawn from Massachusetts until he could hear his case.

But a hearing on the subject scheduled for Monday continued, after Sorokin reviewed the presentations of the prosecutors.

In an order, Sorokin said that the Government explained that Logan agents did not receive the warning of the legal advisor court until after Dr. Alawieh “had already left the United States” and “at any time CBP would not take a judicial order seriously or did not comply with the order of a court.”

This is a development story.

You can contact Edward Fitzpatrick at [email protected]. Follow it @Fitzprov. You can contact Christopher Gavin at [email protected].