Foreign Divinity School Student Detained

About a month ago, Nur Munir—a candidate for a masters degree at the Harvard Divinity School—stopped showing up to his classes. Last week, Baber Johansen, one of Munir’s professors, received an e-mail that explained his student’s month-long absence.

The e-mail stated that Munir had been detained for the past month by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement at York County Prison in York, Pa., on charges of illegal residence in the United States after his application for political asylum was denied.

Although Munir had applied for asylum in 1999 on the grounds of fear of persecution, he was denied and has been appealing the judgment since then.

Professor Baber Johansen—who received the e-mail—said that it is unlikely that Munir will return.

“There was very little hope for any legal help in this, and that the one thing one could hope is that somehow the immigration would let him finish his degree at Harvard,” he said. “It’s very, very uncertain.”

Classmates were surprised when they heard about Munir’s detention.

“In a sense it’s even more shocking just because you would never expect someone to go after someone who’s a scholar at this University and who is obviously working toward enriching society,” said Na’eel A. Cajee ’10, who is taking a History of Science seminar with Munir. “To deport them seems ludicrous.”

According to the official case report, Munir, who is of Indonesian descent, leaked a recording of a speech of then-President of Indonesia Suharto to the Indonesian Embassy in Egypt, in which Suharto expressed a willingness to step down from power. The speech was then published in Kompas, a prominent Indonesian newspaper.

Fearful of retaliation, Munir fled to United States in June 1998 and eventually enrolled at Harvard Divinity School.

In a letter to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Johansen wrote, “[Munir] was a very active member of our class who never missed a session, always engaged in the class discussions, and took a clear reformist position in his detailed papers.”

Early last week, Johansen received an e-mail from Kristine C. Mehok, a pro bono lawyer at Nationalities Service Center, inquiring whether Munir would be able to conduct distance learning from Indonesia in order to finish his degree since he can no longer stay in the United States.

According to Jean Han of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program, Munir’s lawyer has filed a deferred action application so that Munir can finish his degree at Harvard.

His fellow students have also written letters to the immigration service pleading for his case.

The letters are to be sent out today.