VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #1816/01 1650408
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140408Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5665
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS CAIRO 001816 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NSC FOR WATERS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PHUM KIRF PGOV PREL EG
SUBJECT:  BACKGROUND ON SAMEL SAMI KHOUZAM EXTRADITION 
 
REF:  a) 2006 Cairo 1227  b)  2006 State 42818 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Recent press reports have focused on the possible 
extradition of Egyptian citizen Sameh Sami Khouzam from the United 
States to Egypt; some of these reports have been inaccurate.  The 
purpose of this cable is to describe the history of the case itself. 
 Khouzam is an Egyptian citizen who fled to the United States 
seeking asylum in 1998 after being accused of the murder of Ms. 
Hekmat Zaki Mohamed Yousef on February 10, 1998.  He was 
subsequently convicted in absentia.  He is fighting this 
deportation. 
 
¶2.  (U) On February 27, 1998, the GOE requested the extradition of 
Khouzam who was in INS custody in New York fighting deportation 
proceedings. 
 
In the deportation hearing he gave a sworn statement on March 5, 
¶1998.  After reviewing all the evidence in the case, including 
Khouzam's sworn statement, an INS judge denied his petition for 
removal, holding  that substantial evidence existed implicating him 
in a "serious nonpolitical crime" and ordered his repatriation to 
Egypt. The immigration judge also rejected Khouzam's claim that he 
was framed. In January 1999 the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) 
denied his appeal.  A third appeal was dismissed by the BIA in March 
¶2002. 
 
¶3. (U) In 2000, when the proceedings described in paragraph 2 were 
taking place, the US adopted Article Three of the United Nations 
Convention Against Torture (CAT). Article Three prohibits the 
deportation of any individual to a state where there are substantial 
grounds to believe he would be subject to torture. After the United 
States adopted the CAT, Khouzam filed a second petition claiming 
that his deportation was improper under CAT. An immigration judge 
granted this second petition, holding that it was more likely than 
not that Khouzam would be tortured. The INS appealed this decision 
to the Board of Immigration Appeals but their appeal was denied in 
July 2000. The INS then moved the Board to reconsider its decision. 
On May 7, 2002, the Board reconsidered and vacated its July earlier 
decision and ordered that Khouzam be removed from the United States. 
The defense subsequently appealed the denial of both petitions to 
the Second Circuit of the Federal Court of Appeals (Second Circuit) 
 
¶4. (U) The Second Circuit in Khouzam v. Ashcroft, 361 F.3d 161 (2nd 
Cir. 2004), upheld the immigration judge's holding in the first 
petition  concluding that the immigration judge properly found that 
there were serious reasons to believe that Khouzam murdered Zaki 
Youssef (see para six for the full statement and a description of 
the Egyptian police evidence).  The Court also rejected the claim 
that he was framed. However, the Second Circuit did grant Khouzam's 
request with respect to the second petition.  It vacated BIA's May 
2002 decision vacating its July 2000 decision which granted Khouzam 
relief under Article Three of the CAT. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Subsequently, the Department of State decided, pursuant to 
8CFR 208.18 and 208.17, to seek adequate assurances from the GOE 
that Khouzam would not be tortured.  With that, and with DHS's 
agreement, they could override BIA's decision.  The State Department 
did receive what it considered to be adequate assurances and DHS 
concurred.  Consequently BIA's decision to defer removal was 
rendered invalid and Khouzam was arrested.  This is where the case 
now stands. 
 
¶6. (U) Begin statement of Second Circuit Court: 
 
The immigration judge relied on documents describing an Egyptian 
police investigation into the death of one Zaki Mohammed Youssef. 
These documents, that included Egyptian police reports and a warrant 
for Khouzam's arrest, indicate Khouzam's fingerprints were found at 
the crime and he was seen with an injured hand and a bloody shirt on 
the night of the murder.   Further, they relate that the police 
later recovered the bloody shirt, and the blood on it matched the 
victim's blood type.  They also suggest a possible motive for the 
killing.  In addition to this documentary evidence, the immigration 
judge noted that Khouzam had arrived in the United States one day 
after the alleged murder with an injured hand.  When asked about his 
injury he told the INS that a woman had attacked him with a vase, 
they had fought, she had fallen, and he had run.  The judge observed 
that Khouzam's injured hand and his story are consistent with his 
having committed the murder. 
 
Khouzam maintains that none of the documents received from Egypt are 
reliable because he was framed by the Egyptian police.  He offered 
the testimony of two expert witnesses, one of whom pointed to 
irregularities in the police reports.  The other expert described 
persecution of the Coptic Christians in Egypt and opined that a 
number of Copts have been wrongfully accused of crimes.  Khouzam 
also offered a letter from a friend in Egypt stating that the 
alleged victim had not been killed, and enclosing photographs to 
prove that she was alive.  The photographs however, were of an 
unrecognizable veiled woman. 
 
Petitioner also declares that the U.S. government passed information 
from his confidential asylum application to the Egyptian government. 
 This assertion does not detract from the evidence that Khouzam 
allegedly committed a murder, which, if credited, would bar him from 
asylum and withholding.  While we requested further briefing from 
the parties on this matter because of its potential effect on his 
CAT claim, our decision on that claim renders it irrelevant. 
 
While petitioner's evidence might cast a reasonable doubt on his 
guilt, it does not compel a finding that he was framed.  Absent such 
a finding, we agree with the immigration judge that there were 
serious reasons to believe that Khouzam committed the murder.  We 
therefore deny Khouzam's petition for review of the BIA's asylum and 
withholding decision. 
End statement.