Soliman was also hospitalized last month — likely with malaria but he was not given a diagnosis — while he was arbitrarily jailed. His attorneys have been unable to confirm if he’s received any medical care since then, “or even a basic medical evaluation after being incarcerated for a month in squalid conditions,” O’Donnell said.
“To our knowledge, Ahmed has not received any outside humanitarian or medical aid,” until now, O’Donnell said.
Typhoid fever and malaria are among the most common communicable diseases in Equatorial Guinea, but attorneys have not been informed of Soliman’s current diagnosis.
Status reports: No progress
Judge Hinderaker also ordered the U.S. government to provide regular status reports on their efforts to return Soliman. But DHS’s first two reports have been scant on detail and show officials have made no progress since Oct. 6.
The defendants in Soliman’s Sept. 15 civil complaint, which resulted in the federal judge’s Oct. 6 return order, include DHS and the U.S. State Department.
The lack of urgency in U.S. officials’ efforts to return Soliman home is disturbing, and dangerous, O’Donnell said.
Multiple U.S. deportation flights have passed through the region since the judge’s return order was issued; Soliman could have been returned home on any one of those flights, O’Donnell said.
“We’re flummoxed, quite honestly, about why we are 10 days in, and this is the second basically empty status report that we’ve got,” she said.
The government’s Oct. 16 status report — signed by Arizona U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine and an assistant U.S. attorney — echoes the agency’s first update to the judge, one week prior.
Source: tucson.com
