9/9/25 Reposted from citybeat.com
The former journalist and spiritual care provider is still being held in Butler County Jail as his legal team fights for his release.
Former Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Imam Ayman Soliman will go to trial on Sept. 25 and 26 in Cleveland, a significantly sooner timeline than the original Dec. 15 trial date.
The trial date was modified last week in congruence with the court’s understanding of new rules put in place by the federal government to hold certain hearings for cases like Soliman’s within 60 days of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issuing a notice to appear, according to Franchel Daniel, an immigration senior staff attorney part of Soliman’s legal team at the Muslim Legal Fund of America. Soliman’s NTA was issued at the time of his asylum termination in June.
However, the 60-day deadline appears to have already passed, Daniel said. Soliman’s attorney, Robert Ratliff, told WLWT that the rule was “arbitrary.”
“It supposedly is a policy that DHS has put in place, but (the MLFA) doesn’t have a copy of it. We have not seen it. We’re just being told about it,” Daniel said.
Soliman remains in the Butler County Jail, where he’s been held since a July 9 check-in at the Homeland Security Office in Blue Ash ended in his arrest. The former journalist had asylum status and worked as a chaplain at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, but that status was revoked in June.
Soliman’s trial will determine whether the government had grounds to terminate his asylum status and whether he is “removable,” Daniel said.
The trial will start at 8 a.m. on Sept. 25 and 26, and it’s expected to last the entirety of both days. Soliman’s legal team originally requested the trial be four days, and there is a possibility the trial will take longer than the currently scheduled two days, Daniel said.
Soliman’s trial will take place before Cleveland Immigration Court Judge Jennifer Riedthaler-Williams.
Background
Soliman, who has no criminal record, fled to the U.S. from Egypt in 2014, according to immigration advocates at Ignite Peace Cincinnati. Soliman has said he was “escaping death” when he left his family in Egypt more than a decade ago. Soliman was reportedly jailed as a freelance journalist for his coverage of events related to the Arab Spring, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. While in jail, the MLFA, one of Soliman’s legal representatives, alleges he was “beaten and tortured for days at a time.” He applied for asylum status in 2015 and was approved in 2018. He then filed for his wife and child to join him in the U.S. under the same asylum case. He also applied for a green card shortly after being granted asylum; that application remains pending.
But in June 2025, Soliman’s asylum status was officially revoked after federal authorities started looking into his case in December 2024. Before Soliman’s July 9 arrest, advocates said he was extensively questioned by immigration and other federal authorities about his political affiliations.
In 2021, Soliman discovered there was an “FBI flag” on his record when he was offered a position at the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) as an Islamic chaplain in 2021. His first background check showed an FBI flag, which caused the Department of Corrections to take back the job offer. Soliman sued the FBI and the Terrorist Screening Center in 2021, claiming his fingerprints did not match prints in the government’s terrorism screening database.
In Soliman’s most recent lawsuit filed against the federal government regarding the termination of his asylum status, he argues the government revoked his asylum due to past ties with the group Al-Jameya al Shareya (also written as Al-Gam’iyya al Shar’iyya) when he lived in Egypt. Soliman said his involvement as a board member of the organization was disclosed to DHS when he was granted asylum. The U.S. government alleges Al-Jameya al Shareya supported the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt has called a terrorist organization. International experts and Soliman’s lawyers have pushed back on the designation.
“Al-Jameya al Shareya is not a terrorist group,” Soliman’s legal team said in July. “It is a nongovernmental organization that provides medical services and charitable community services. Neither the U.S. government nor the Egyptian government has designated AGS/AJS a terrorist group.”
Soliman’s case has garnered widespread attention and support from local leaders and community members, including many faith leaders in the Cincinnati area. After immigrating to the U.S., Soliman became a board member for the Clifton Mosque, the Islamic Association of Cincinnati and the Initiative on Islam and Medicine. According to his bio on the Clifton Mosque’s website, Soliman holds undergraduate degrees in Islamic studies, Qura’n and Islamic Da’wah. He holds a Master’s degree in Islamic Studies and is currently pursuing a Master’s of Divinity in Islamic Studies and Muslim Chaplaincy, as well as a PhD in Islamic Studies.
Tala Ali, chairperson of the Clifton Mosque and the Islamic Association of Cincinnati, addressed reporters alongside several community advocates just hours after Soliman’s arrest. She said Soliman serves families of all faiths in the Cincinnati community.
“He not only serves Muslim families, but families of all backgrounds and faiths,” she said. “He holds presence and pastoral care for all people.”
