Foreign and Military Affairs
'Terroristic threats' Zhai to return to China
By Chen Weihua (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-07-30 13:02
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NEW YORK: Zhai Tiantian, a former doctoral student at the New Jersey-based Stevens Institute of Technology who was previously charged with "terroristic threats", has been granted voluntary departure within the next 30 days under a ruling made by the judge at the Elizabeth Immigration Court on Thursday morning.
"This means that Zhai can choose to depart US anytime from today," Zhai's lawyer Hai Ming told China Daily yesterday.
Unlike the deportation Zhai was facing earlier which will bar him from reentering the country for 10 years. For voluntary departure, if the individual voluntarily departs within the time ordered by the court, he will not be barred from legally reentering in the future.
Also unlike deportation, a person voluntarily departs must pay his own airfare. And Hai said he is helping to arrange the air ticket and Zhai is most likely to return to China in mid August.
Hai said Zhai is satisfied with the outcome. He no longer has hatred for Stevens as he did earlier and he no longer plans to sue the school. His only regret is that he could not hold a farewell party with friends, he quoted Zhai as saying.
Before the voluntary departure, Zhai still has to stay in the Elizabeth Detention Center. Hai explained that the Elizabeth federal judge Mirlande Tadal was worried that Zhai was young and hot-blooded and may cause unnecessary trouble before his departure. The judge also wished Zhai to become more mature after this and he welcomed Zhai to come back to the US in the future, according to Hai.
With no farewell party in sight, the only place Zhai can say goodbye to his friends seem to be either at the immigration prison or airport upon his departure.
The 26-year Zhai still hopes to come back to the US one day. He has deep feeling for the country, where he has stayed since he was 18-year-old, according to Zhai.
Hai said Zhai told the US news media yesterday that he loves the United States and he still considers the US his second home despite the ordeal.
Zhai first arrived in the US in 2003 and completed both his bachelor and Master's degrees at Stevens. He was pursuing his doctoral degree when the Stevens suspended him on March 11 this year, citing his violations of school's code of conduct.
Zhai was arrested in mid April after the school reported him to the police that he made phone calls threatening to burn down a school building, a charge Zhai denied.
During the same time, Zhai's student visa was revoked by the immigration authorities.
He was also facing another charge of aggravated harassment in the second degree in New York City.
But in a letter dated July 21, the New York County District Attorney's Office had declined to prosecute Zhai for the aggravated harassment charge.
On July 28, Zhai appeared before the New Jersey Superior Court. After mediation between lawyers and the judge, the charge of "terroristic threats", a felony, has been reduced to petty disorderly conduct.
Under the New Jersey Law, petty disorderly offenses carry a possible jail sentence of 30 days, up to $500 fine, possible community service and possible probation.
Hai believes that the Hudson Country prosecutor's office is not going to pursue the case after yesterday's ruling by the federal immigration judge.
So far, Zhai has spent more than 100 days in two different jails.
After being arrested in mid April, he spent the first two months and half in the Hudson County Correctional Center, where suspected criminal offenders are held. He was then moved on July 2 to the Elizabeth Detention Center, where suspected illegal immigrants, including asylum seekers, are kept.
For a while, Zhai's case became an international incident, with stories widely quoted by the Chinese news media and bloggers. Some have described it as a racial discrimination and a flaw of the US justice system while others said he deserves to be punished for what he alleged said.
Many had mistakenly equated the charge of "terroristic threats", or making verbal threats, to someone being charged as a terrorist like suicide bombers.
