Pro-Palestinian protest leader freed

Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests, was released Friday from a federal detention centre.

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Mr Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, has been in custody since March facing potential deportation.

"This shouldn’t have taken three months," Mr Khalil, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, told US media outside an immigration detention centre in Jena, Louisiana hours after a federal judge ordered his release.

"[President Donald] Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this," he said. "There’s no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide."