Press Release

January 19, 1996

Telephone: (202) 483-6444

Kurdish Activist Arrested ... For Missing Student Loan Payment

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 1997 - The Reuter News Service reported yesterday that Kani Xulam, a Kurdish human rights advocate, was arrested in Washington, D.C. on charges of illegally obtaining $ 13,000 of student loans. However, perhaps sensing the lack of sensationalism, the report recounted Mr. Xulam's previous day in court regarding charges of falsifying information on a U.S. passport application.

In response to his recent detention, Mr. Xulam has issued the following statement to correct the misleading information given by the Reuter report: "I have cooperated fully with the authorities in every instance and find the continuos harassment by the United States State Department unjustified. The county of Santa Barbara [which issued the warrant] had no problem with my having received the loans. They only took action when I failed to make several payments. However, had they checked with my attorney, they would have found that these matters were being taken care of. I believe that my arrest had more to do with the fact that a Federal Court recommended that I not be extradited to Turkey and possibly with the recent visit to Washington by a high ranking Turkish trade representative."

In fact, the judge presiding over the previous charge, brought by the United States at the behest of the Republic of Turkey, ruled that the court recommends that Mr. Xulam not be deported, that he be placed on three years probation and that he serve 400 hours community service by continuing his activities at the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN). AKIN is a non-profit human rights organization promoting the human rights of the Kurds all over the globe. Despite Reuter's allusions to the contrary, neither Mr. Xulam nor AKIN is affiliated with terrorist organizations, a fact to which more than twenty members of Congress signed in a recent letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

As for the recent charges, Mr. Xulam acknowledges that he has been delinquent in repaying state and federal grants and throws himself on the mercy of the court.