Sept. 19, 2025Updated Sept. 22, 2025, 9:46 a.m. ETCincinnati imam Ayman Soliman was released from the Butler County jail after 72 days in detention.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reinstated his asylum protection, citing a mistake in his case.Soliman says he will eventually seek U.S. citizenship and bring his family from Egypt.Seventy-two days ago, supporters of Cincinnati imam Ayman Soliman gathered with fear and in tears to announce he'd been arrested by U.S. immigration officials.On Sept. 19, they gathered again to celebrate Soliman's release from the Butler County jail, offering fearless criticism of the immigration system and tears of relief over the end of his detention.Soliman himself, just four hours after winning his freedom, was dry-eyed as he thanked his supporters and assailed his jailers.Immigration officials, he said, think "they are above the law."Until the hour of his release, he said, he believed trying to fight to regain asylum protection was useless and he'd soon be on a plane back to Egypt.His fate changed just as he readied for a morning nap.'Pack your stuff and come out'Speaking at a 90-minute press conference punctuated by prayer, Soliman said he was about to rest when a jail official arrived with news. "Pack your stuff and come out," he was told."There is no way. There must be a mistake," he thought.Officials then turned over a letter from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, telling him the government was "correcting a mistake after some review of my case."He was released by 1 p.m., then joined Friday prayer at the Clifton Mosque, site of the press conference.Soliman said he encountered both "very, very good people" in jail and "some awful humans" who should be in a mental hospital.When arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on July 9, he said, he was held in a frigid room for 11 hours, wearing only underwear and a T-shirt, and denied a bathroom for five hours. Later, he was made to strip in front of other detainees. "Some people treated me like an animal," he said.But letters from supporters – 760 in all over his weeks in the jail – buoyed him, he said. So did the support of fellow detainees, who appreciated that "one of the oppressed" among them had won advocates, he said.What's next for Soliman?In a brief interview with The Enquirer after the press conference, Soliman, 51, said he talked to U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman of Cincinnati just hours before his release about working on some yet-to-be-defined community effort. He also said he'd talked to his family in Egypt, which includes a wife and 15-year-old son.Soliman said he lost 20 pounds in jail, along with the laces for his shoes. He said he has not yet decided whether he'll seek a return to Cincinnati Children's, where he served as a hospital chaplain before his arrest.Case against Soliman 'flimsy,' lawyer saysWith his asylum protection restored, Soliman will seek to rebuild his life in the United States, according to his attorney, Robert Ratliff. He will eventually seek citizenship and attempt to bring his family here, Ratliff said."We would hope that any roadblocks there were preventing that from happening previously have been dealt with," he said.Ratliff called the government's case against Soliman incredibly flimsy, saying "Finally, we got to the right place and we have the right result." The government attempted to align Soliman with terrorism because he supported a charity with a tenuous relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Egyptian government considers a terrorist organization.Pressure on immigrants is growing, Ratliff warned."The tactics that were employed against Mr. Soliman in this case are going to be tactics that millions of people are going to face in the future," he said.Just two weeks ago, he noted, the Board of Immigration Appeals ruled that persons entering the country illegally are now subject to mandatory detention. "The U.S. can make that determination on their own," he said.Milestones from Egypt to CincinnatiSoliman became a known figure in Cincinnati and across the country with his July arrest. But his journey from Egypt to the United States began years before. Here are key dates, assembled from Enquirer reporting and research:Jan. 7, 1974: Born in Egypt, living in a small desert village in the northern part of the country when he left in 2014.Unknown dates: Earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Islamic studies and other disciplines and spent 14 years as an imam in Egypt. Married and welcomed a son, now age 15.2000, 2005, 2010 and 2013: Detained at least four times by the Egyptian government, at least in part for working as a freelance journalist covering government events.March 6, 2014: Entered the United States, via either Detroit or Tucson, Arizona, on a visitor visa.Feb. 2, 2015: Filed for asylum in U.S. immigrations system.June 7, 2018: Granted asylum status.2018-2021: Lived in Chicago and Oregon, losing an offer to work as a prison chaplain job in Oregon after a background check turned up an “FBI flag” in his record. 2021: Began working as a chaplain for Cincinnati Children's hospital.January 2022: Filed a federal lawsuit to determine the cause of the FBI flag, a circumstance that attracted increased scrutiny. Dec. 4, 2024: Learned U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services intended to revoke his asylum status.June 3: Lost asylum.July 3: Arrested at ICE offices in Blue Ash following a three-hour meeting that included FBI agents, then detained at Butler County Jail.July 13: Hailed by about 300 supporters outside Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.July 15: Won temporary restraining order from a federal court, barring immigration officials from removing him from Ohio.July 17: Hailed by about 250 supporters at a downtown event, with several dozen attempting to cross the John A. Roebling Bridge into Covington against police order and 15 people facing subsequent charges.July and August: Multiple court proceedings in Cleveland Immigration Court and U.S. District Court.Sept. 19: Released from jail, with government reinstating his asylum protection less than a week before he was to seek that outcome in a trial scheduled to begin Sept. 25.