Deported R.I. Doctor Had Photos of Hezbollah on Phone

Rasha Alawieh, the Rhode Island doctor deported last week, had photos on her phone of Iranian and Hezbollah leaders, according to court documents.

Alawieh was questioned about the photos by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents at Boston's Logan International Airport, The Boston Globe reported, citing court documents.

An assistant professor at Brown University's medical school, Alawieh was deported to Lebanon even though a judge issued an order blocking the U.S. visa holder's immediate removal from the country, according to court papers.

Prosecutors said the doctor was questioned while at the airport about photos on her phone of Hassan Nasrallah, the late longtime leader of Hezbollah, as well as pictures of the terrorist group's "fighters and martyrs," the Globe said, citing court papers.

"Dr. Alawieh stated that Nasrallah is the leader of Hezbollah, and as a Shia Muslim he is highly regarded in the Shia community as a religious figure," prosecutors wrote. "According to Dr. Alawieh, she follows him for his religious and spiritual teachings and not his politics."

Lawyers representing Alawieh withdrew from the case, saying they could no longer represent her "as a result of further diligence," according to court documents.

Alawieh told officials she attended the commemoration of the death of Nasrallah during her trip while she was waiting for a visa, prosecutors said.

Alawieh was detained Thursday after arriving at Logan from a trip to Lebanon to see relatives, according to a lawsuit filed by her cousin Yara Chehab.

She had held a visa to be in the U.S. since 2018, when she first came to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University before completing a fellowship at the University of Washington and moving to the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Residency Program, which she completed in June.

While in Lebanon, the U.S. consulate issued Alawieh an H-1B visa authorizing her entry into America to work at Brown, the lawsuit said. Such visas are reserved for people from other countries who are employed in specialty occupations.

Despite that visa, CBP detained her at the airport for reasons her family members have still not been provided, according to the lawsuit, which argued her rights were being violated.

In response to the lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin on Friday issued orders barring Alawieh's removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours' notice to the court and requiring her to be brought to a court hearing on Monday.

Yet according to the cousin's attorneys, after that order was issued, Alawieh was flown to Paris, where she was set to board a flight for Lebanon that had been scheduled for Sunday.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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