The Trump administration submitted a notice Wednesday to a federal court in Washington saying it had determined it would release the man, who has been held without charge in a U.S. military detention facility in Iraq since he surrendered on the Syrian battlefield in September. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been representing the man, asked a federal judge in Washington Thursday night to block the action, which it had condemned as “disgraceful” and a de facto “death warrant.”

U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan scheduled a hearing on the government plan for Friday morning. The Justice Department announced late Wednesday that U.S. forces were preparing to release the man, a dual U.S.-Saudi citizen identified only as "John Doe," into territory controlled by allied Syrian Democratic Forces as early as Saturday, after having held him as an alleged "enemy combatant" for nine months. Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that the U.S. could not "forcibly transfer" him to a third-party country such as Saudi Arabia, where he has dual citizenship, without proving to a court that he had fought for the enemy. ACLU attorney Jonathan Hafetz said the government’s “meager offer to return his money and give him a cellphone does not remotely provide any protection from the violence and danger that exists throughout Syria.”

In asking for a temporary restraining order to block the release, the ACLU said in court papers that the man “does not oppose his release from U.S. custody.
A U.S. federal judge blocks until June 20 the release in Syrian Democratic Forces-controlled territory of a dual-nationality Saudi-American citizen alleged to have joined ISIL. The man, who is now held for nine months in Iraq, was planned to be released by the U.S. military – with a new cell phone, some food and water and $4,210 in cash, but with no identification – as soon as tomorrow.