Corning man released, in Pakistan

The Corning aircraft painter who was jailed in June amid speculation that he had ties to terrorists was released from custody in Pakistan, where he had been deported to and, upon arrival, inexplicably arrested by Pakistani federal police.

Stephanie Mubarak, wife of deportee Ali Mubarak, said her husband was released in late September and is now living with relatives in Islamabad. He is physically well, she said, but is seeking treatment for anxiety attacks and stress-related illnesses, the apparent product of his incarceration.

Mubarak, 34, has not lived in his native Pakistan since the age of 3 and is hoping to settle in the United Arab Emirates, where he grew up, as soon as he can secure passage.

Mubarak told his wife over the phone that authorities in Pakistan “had been asked by the U.S. to hold him, that he was still under suspicion and that it was [the Pakistani government’s] decision when to release him,” Stephanie Mubarak said.

Numerous U.S. officials and at least one Pakistani official have denied that Mubarak was being held in Pakistan.

Mubarak was arrested in Texas this summer because the student visa with which he entered the country in 1991 had long ago expired. For months prior to his arrest, he had been eyed with suspicion by the FBI because he had once been a roommate and traveling companion of Abdul Hakim Murad, a convicted terrorist with ties to Al-Qaeda.

After two months in the Yuba County Jail and a lengthy immigration hearing, Mubarak began to doubt he would ever realize his goal of becoming a U.S. citizen and agreed to deportation. His wife said she would travel to the UAE to be with him if and when he ever arrives there.