AP News, October 9th, 2007
Immigration authorities are asking a court to let them sedate an Albanian restaurateur on a deportation flight to keep him from becoming hysterical again over fears he'll be killed if he returns to that country.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked a federal judge for permission to medicate Rrustem Neza, a 32-year-old asylum seeker who fled his homeland after publicly identifying the men accused of gunning down an Albanian politician.
Agents tried to deport Neza in August but couldn't because he was terrified and would not calm down.
A physician from the Public Health Service would administer the sedative and a medical worker would accompany Neza during the flight this time, under the ICE proposal.
"Unless this Court enjoins Neza from any further unlawful resistance to his removal and authorizes ICE, through PHS, to use medical means ... it will be impossible to execute the final order of removal," the government said in court documents filed Oct. 1.
Although deportees have been medicated before, it's rarely done, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said Monday. "We only ask for this option when the alien in question may present a danger to himself or to others," he said.
John Wheat Gibson, Neza's lawyer, said Monday he plans to fight the government's request.
"Mr. Neza will get off the airplane in Albania too drugged to run from the killers who will be waiting," Gibson wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
Neza is being detained at the Rolling Plains facility in Haskell, about 210 miles west of Dallas. His wife, Nurie Neza, and 10-year-old son are not detained but also face deportation. Neza's two brothers were granted asylum in the U.S. but his bid for asylum was denied and subsequent appeals have been turned down.
Neza fled after telling a crowd in the Albanian city of Tropoje the names of the men who allegedly were seen killing Azem Hajdari, who organized a student movement against the Communist Party. Police pursued him, his brothers and their cousins while they tried to flee. His cousins were fatally shot while on the run.
