Alawieh, a Rhode Island transplant doctor and assistant professor at Brown University, was detained on Thursday in Boston after visiting family in Lebanon, her cousin claimed in a lawsuit challenging Alawieh‘s detention.

Sorokin ordered on Friday that Alawieh be kept in the U.S. and brought to a court hearing on Monday. He wrote Monday morning that „Dr. Alawieh is now in Lebanon.“

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On Sunday, Sorokin ordered the government to explain before the now-canceled Monday hearing why Alawieh was removed. Lawyers for her family claimed the government „willfully“ disobeyed his order by sending Alawieh outside the U.S.