Kirschbaum, who says that he is a member of A.N.S.W.E.R.with Abouazza, says the two organized several protests together, including an April 6 demonstration in Boston and a protest in front of the Israeli consulate.

“His only so-called crime was to be out on the streets defending his people of Palestine,” Kirschbaum says.

But as soon as Abouazza was released from jail on June 3, the INS took him into custody and held him on grounds that he was in the country illegally.

An INS spokesperson did not return calls for comment.

Seth I. Horowitz, spokesperson for the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office, says such intervention by the INS in a criminal case is not unusual.

“If a defendant’s citizenship is in question, it’s not uncommon for INS to become involved, and in this case they did,” he explains.

Brill says it is unclear whether Abouazza was in the country illegally.

“He came as a visitor from Canada, but Canadian’s aren’t given any kind of entry documentation with a certain time to leave,” Brill says. “It’s a very gray area.”

Ultimately, the court permitted Abouazza to voluntarily return to Canada.

Brill says that his client was wrongly suspected of being a terrorist, and police and government officials were looking for ways to keep him in custody for additional questioning.

“They held him in jail for a number of weeks, and the FBI was interviewing him on a regular basis,” Brill says. “On their end they thought he was suspicious—which was groundless.”

FBI spokesperson Gail Marcinkiewicz said she could not “confirm or deny” that the FBI had interrogated Abouazza.

She declined to comment further on the incident or the FBI’s involvement.

Ultimately, Brill says, the court granted Abouazza voluntary departure to return to Canada in early July, but because he still has criminal charges against him—and was not released from INS custody to appear in court—Abouazza cannot return to the U.S.

Since Abouazza’s return to Canada, Kirschbaum says he has continued his activism there, organizing a Sept. 28 protest in Ottawa.