Muslim Abuumar, along with his pregnant wife, son and mother-in-law, were arrested on arrival at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport on Friday and boarded a Qatar Airways flight back to Doha two days later, police sources said.
According to reuters "The request came from the US State Department," said a senior federal police official. "It was proven before the judge that [Abuumar] was deeply involved with Hamas," he said.
A federal judge in São Paulo suspended the deportation on Saturday to request information from the police, who, upon receiving it, approved the deportation of Abuumari and his family. Judge Milenna da Cunha said in a ruling reported by Reuters that the US embassy informed Brazilian federal police that "Hamas agent, Muslim Abuumar" was arriving in Brazil from Kuala Lumpur.
According to the order filed by Abuumar's lawyer, Bruno Henrique de Moura, police arrested the Palestinian family when they arrived at Guarulhos airport without permission. It said that they will come to visit his brother, who lives in Brazil. However, Brazilian police sources said that Abuumar did not come to visit, but to stay in Brazil and become a spokesman for Hamas.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the large amount of luggage he brought with his family suggested he planned to stay longer. Abuumar (37) is the executive director of the Asia Middle East Centre, his wife is of Malaysian origin and the children were born in Malaysia, according to the order issued by his lawyer.
According to a police source, Abuumar first flew to Brazil last year and arrived on January 1 when leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in for a new term. Lula favours a two-state solution to the Palestinian conflict and condemned Israel's military response in Gaza until October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The Palestine Liberation Organization has had a representative in Brazil since Brazil recognized the state of Palestine in 1975, and Lula's government promised to build a Palestinian embassy in the Brazilian capital in 2010 when his second term as president ended.
The Palestinian ambassador to Brazil, Ibrahim Al Zeben, said there was no official contact with Abumar's embassy. "We trust Brazilian politics," he said. Saying Brazilian police "simply acceded to a politically motivated US request" and based Abuumari's name on the US government's terrorist watch list.
"The US is using this list to make life difficult for Palestinian activists," Moura said. In his ruling upholding the deportation, Judge Cunha cited Abuumari's social media posts where he met Ismail Haniyeh, the top political leader of Hamas, in Doha.
