The American Civil Liberties Union, Rep. John Conyers, (D-Detroit) and two Detroit newspapers won another small victory in the Rabih Haddad case last week when a panel of judges on the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the government's motion for a stay on Haddad's hearings.

ACLU legal director Michael Steinberg, who spearheaded a group that filed a lawsuit against the government to open Haddad's court hearings, said the verdict is a positive sign.

"I feel very optimistic. The trial judge issued a very strong opinion that secret hearings are odious to a democracy," he said. "We won. This means any hearings held between now and the decision made by the Court of Appeals must be open."

The government appealed to the court after U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Edmunds ruled in favor of open immigration hearings in Haddad's case in early April and asked that the ruling be held until the 6th Circuit makes its final decision.

Haddad, an Ann Arbor Muslim leader arrested on a visa violation nearly five months ago, is currently being held in the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center. Though Haddad is thus far being held on a visa violation charge, he might appear in front of a grand jury to answer questions regarding possible terrorist connections to the Global Relief Foundation charity he helped establish. Global Relief's Chicago offices were raided by federal agents the same day as Haddad's arrest in December.

Haddad's immigration hearing, which was postponed after Judge Edmund's decision, has been rescheduled again for June 19.

Nazih Hassan, president of the Muslim Community Association in Ann Arbor and one of Haddad's friends, said the government is trying to stall until the 6th Circuit makes its final decision.

"They're just buying time by continuously postponing the hearings," he said.

Ashraf Nubani, one of Haddad's lawyers, said the Court will hear oral arguments by mid-May, and is expected to make a decision by late May or early June.

"We're hopeful. The government has a very slim chance of prevailing on appeal," he said. "This is just a political game. The government is trying to justify the incarceration of a respected member of the Ann Arbor community when there's no basis for his detention. We don't know what claims the government is actually making, so how can we respond?"