Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil released on bail

Columbia University graduate student was leading organiser of campus protests in support of Gaza

Palestine campaigner and Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was released on bail on Friday after a US judge's ruling.

Mr Khalil, a legal US resident who played a prominent role in pro-Palestine campus protests last year, had been held in Louisiana since his March arrest.

His release comes after a series of legal challenges over the past few months.

“[The] petitioner is not a flight risk,” Judge Michael Farbiarz said on Friday, according to Courthouse News. “He's also not a danger to the community.”

The same judge ruled last week that the White House could not use US foreign policy interests to justify its detention of Mr Khalil. But President Donald Trump's administration said it had no plans to release him.

“The court did not order respondents to release petitioner Mahmoud Khalil,” US Department of Justice lawyers wrote in a last-minute appeal, implying they could detain Mr Khalil on other grounds.

“An alien like Khalil may be detained during the pendency of removal proceedings regardless of the charge of removability.” The government said Mr Khalil had to convince the Department of Homeland Security to release him, and that he had failed to do so.

Department of Justice lawyers challenged a recent court ruling which sought to release Mahmoud Khalil from custody. Image: Pacer

The Department of Justice also said that, if Mr Farbiarz insisted on releasing Mr Khalil, it could pursue other legal options to keep him detained. The judge acquiesced.

“The respondents have now represented that the petitioner is being detained on another, second charge,” he wrote, adding that Mr Khalil retains the option of requesting bail through an application to an immigration judge presiding over his case.

On Wednesday, Mr Farbiarz said Mr Khalil's legal team had shown that his continued detention was causing irreparable harm to his career, his family and his right to free speech.

Noor Abdalla, wife of Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who remains in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. Reuters

The State Department revoked his green card under a little-used provision of immigration law granting the Secretary of State the power to seek the deportation of any non-citizen whose presence in the country is considered adverse to US foreign policy interests.

The White House has accused Mr Khalil of spreading Hamas propaganda during the protests.

A judge in Louisiana previously ruled that the US government could proceed with efforts to deport him. He was denied leave in late April to attend the birth of his first child.

His arrest was part of a Trump administration crackdown on so-called anti-Semitism on university campuses. The administration has deemed pro-Palestine protests to fall under this umbrella.

Mr Khalil has described himself as a political prisoner and said his arrest was indicative of anti-Palestinian racism in the US.