Rahinah Ibrahim found herself unable to enter the United States since 2004, claiming she had been mistakenly put on the list because of her Malaysian origin and Muslim faith. — Reuters file pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 — Placed on a list barring entry to those the United States deems as terrorism risks, a Malaysian professor took her first step towards expunging her name from the mysterious database after her landmark case finally went to trial at the federal court in San Francisco yesterday.

Rahinah Ibrahim, the dean of Universiti Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) faculty of design and architecture, has struggled for eight years in the American court system to clear her name from the secretive list, after she was first detained at the San Francisco airport in 2005 on a Malaysia-bound flight with a stopover in Hawaii.

“Once you’re in the system, it’s almost impossible to get out,” Rahinah’s lawyer Elizabeth Pipkin was quoted as saying in her opening statement at the trial in San Francisco yesterday, according to international news wire Associated Press (AP).

Although there are similar lawsuits pending in the US, Rahinah’s legal challenge against the US Department of Homeland Security is believed to be the first to get its day in court.

The AP reported Rahinah as claiming that she was mistakenly placed on the list because of her Malaysian origin and Muslim faith.

The news wire also reported that Rahinah has denied links to terrorist organisations after the 48-year-old was interviewed by the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in December 2004, who had asked if she had heard of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), an Indonesia-based militant group.

The university professor was also reportedly questioned about her involvement with the Muslim community in the San Francisco Bay Area.

At that time, Rahinah was staying near Stanford University in California pursuing a doctorate in architecture at the top-ranked school.

Rahinah was arrested the next month at the San Francisco International Airport, where she was told that she has been labelled a terrorist suspect in the US government database.

She was subsequently barred from entering the country ever since, according to a report by US newspaper San Jose Mercury News yesterday.

This forced her to complete her Stanford doctorate remotely, after her student visa was revoked when she persisted in trying to get her name off the no-fly lists. Rahinah had also settled separate legal claims for US$225,000 (RM723,713) against the San Francisco police and other parties linked to her arrest.

Rahinah was even prohibited from entering the United States to testify at the trial.

According to the AP, Rahinah’s suit is encountering difficulties because of the US government’s state secret privilege that allows it to refuse to disclose vital evidence if a threat to national security can be shown by prosecutors.

Rahinah’s lawyer is prohibited by US national security provisions and court orders from exploring too deeply the inner-workings of the administration of the government’s suspected lists of terrorists.

The AP reported that US District Judge William Alsup cleared the courtroom yesterday so that three slides bearing classified information could be discussed behind closed doors.

Federal prosecutors were also reported to raise continuous objections when Rahinah’s lawyer came close to talking about her client’s no-fly list status and how Rahinah came to appear on the list.

Federal prosecutor Lily Farel reportedly told the judge that national security interests prevent the US government from responding to any of Rahinah’s claims.

US newspaper The New York Times reported last Saturday that it was uncertain if the FBI investigation against Rahinah had included evidence like email or phone records.

“We’ve tried to get discovery into whether our client has been surveilled and have been shut down on that. They won’t answer that question for us,” Pipkin, who is from California-based law firm McManis Faulkner representing Rahinah pro bono, was quoted as saying.

The lawyer was reported by San Jose Mercury News as saying that it is unclear how people end up on the US government’s no-fly lists.

“The government has never contested this case on the merits. We don’t think they have a defense,” Pipkin was quoted as saying.

Before the 2005 arrest, Rahinah had regularly travelled to the US since the early 1980s, which she called her “second home”, according to court papers cited by San Jose Mercury News.

Rahinah had even met her husband in the US and they got married in Seattle in 1986. Her eldest child is an American citizen.

According to the AP, the US government’s no-fly list is taken from the US National Counter-Terrorism Centre list of suspected terrorists that authorities say contain 875,000 names, as of May.

When contacted by The Malay Mail Online yesterday, Rahinah said that she was ordered by her lawyers not to speak to the media during the trial.

Pipkin has yet to respond to The Malay Mail Online’s request for comment at press time.