Hospital: Men detained as terror suspects may return to Miami hospital

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Posted 8:23AM on Monday, September 23, 2002

DAVIE, Fla. - Three men who were detained as terror suspects on a Florida highway may be allowed to train at the Miami hospital that turned them away after the incident once all the media attention to their case dies down, a hospital official said Sunday. But no agreement has been reached to allow for the three medical students' to return to Larkin Hospital, Dr. Jack Michel, Larkin's CEO and president said Sunday. "It is possible that once the media furor dies down and once things are a little bit clearer and all the attention is gone, we would potentially welcome them back to the hospital," Michel said. "They will definitely not be at Larkin for the time being and it's definitely not planned in the future." The three medical students - Ayman Gheith, 27, Kambiz Butt, 25, and Omar Choudhary, 23 - were scheduled to begin a six-week clinical training course at Larkin Hospital Sep. 16. But the hospital decided not to host the students after it received hundreds of threatening e-mails. The students began their clinical training on Sept. 17 at another clinical facility, Michel said. He declined to name where the students were training. "The students are not going to have an interruption in their medical education. I'm committed to that, and I'm making sure they can fulfill those requirements," Michel said. "For the time being, it will not include rotating specifically to Larkin Community Hospital." Altaf Ali, executive director for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said an agreement was reached last week to let the medical students continue their training. "There's no formal written agreement that the students will be allowed to return to the hospital," Ali said Sunday. "What was agreed upon is that the students will be able to continue their clinical training without any disruption." Ali, who had arranged for attorneys to help the men, said the students are satisfied with the arrangement. "They are very pleased with the situation," Ali said. "All they wanted, actually, was to get back normalcy in their lives." Gheith, Butt and Choudhary were headed to Larkin on Sept. 13 when they were stopped on Alligator Alley in southwest Florida. They were detained for 18 hours as their vehicles were searched by bomb-sniffing dogs. Florida authorities were alerted after a Georgia restaurant patron said she heard the three men joking about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and making remarks that suggested a terrorist attack was planned for Sept. 13. The threat turned out to be a false alarm. Gheith, Butt and Choudhary denied any wrongdoing and were released after nothing was found. But then the threatening e-mails began arriving at Larkin and the hospital decided to turn the men away. Meanwhile, a physician who was to coordinate the three men's education said he was removed from his position at Larkin because he tried to find another Miami-area hospital for them to train in. Dr. Enrique Fernandez said he was told Friday by Ross University, which runs the student's training program, that he was dismissed from Larkin. He said he didn't receive an explanation for the move. Michel called the situation with Fernandez "an internal matter" and wouldn't say why he was removed from Larkin.