Brazilian police expel suspected Palestinian Hamas member

Brazil has expelled a suspected Palestinian Hamas member and his family at the request of the US State Department, Brazilian federal police sources said. Reuters Monday.

Muslim man MA Abuumar and his 7-month pregnant wife, son and mother-in-law, were arrested upon entering the country at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport and put on a Qatar Airways flight to Doha on Sunday, the sources said.

“The request came from the US State Department,” said a senior federal police official. “It was proven before a judge that he was deeply involved in Hamas,” he said.

A federal judge in Sao Paulo stopped the eviction on Saturday and requested information from police, leading them to approve the expulsion of Abumar and his family.

According to the injunction filed by Abuumar's lawyer, Bruno Henrique de Moura, the Palestinian family was arrested by police upon entering Guarulhos airport without a warrant. He said they were coming to visit his brother who lives in Brazil.

Abuumar, 37, is executive director of the Asia-Middle East Center, and his wife is Malaysian and his children were born in Malaysia, the injunction said.

A police source said Abumar first visited Brazil last year and arrived on Jan. 1, the day left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in.

The Palestinian ambassador in Brasilia, Ibrahim Al Zeben, said no one had officially contacted the embassy about Abuumar. “We trust Brazilian politics,” he added in a message to Reuters.

Lawyer Moura said Brazilian police “simply agreed to a US request that was politically motivated” and based on Abumar's name appearing on the US government's terrorist watch list.

“The United States is using this list to make life difficult for pro-Palestinian activists,” Moura said.

Judge Milenna da Cunha said in her ruling seen by Reuters that the Brazilian federal police received an alert from the American embassy indicating that “a member of Hamas, Muslim Abuumar” would arrive in Brazil on Friday from Kuala Lumpur.

The judge's decision approving the expulsion cited Abuumar's social media posts showing him meeting in Doha with Ismail Haniyeh, one of Hamas' top political leaders.

She also cited Brazilian police's suspicions that Abuumar was traveling to Brazil with his family for his wife to give birth so that their child would be a naturalized Brazilian citizen.

(Reuters and the new Arab staff)