US judge halts deportation of Egyptian

An Egyptian man won a reprieve Friday from US government efforts to deport him to Egypt, where he was convicted in absentia of murdering a woman. A federal judge in Pennsylvania stopped the deportation of Sameh Sami S. Khouzam while the court considers his argument that he cannot be sent back to Egypt because he will probably be tortured. "While Khouzam may have no right to be in the United States, he most assuredly has a right not to be tortured," Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie wrote in his opinion. "Granting a stay of removal to assure proper observance of the applicable law serves the public interest."