Brazil deports Palestinian family at the request of the US

Brazil has deported a Palestinian man and his family at the request of the US State Department, Brazilian federal police sources told Reuters on Monday.

Muslim M. A. Abuumar and his 7-month pregnant wife, his son and mother-in-law, were detained entering the country at Sao Paulo's Guarulhos airport and put on a Qatar Airways flight back to Doha on Sunday, the sources said.

The US alleged that Abuumar is a member of Hamas. 

Abuumar, aged 37, is executive director of the Asia Middle East Center, and his wife is Malaysian and his children Malaysian-born, the injunction said.

Judge Milenna da Cunha said in her ruling seen by Reuters that Brazilian federal police received an alert from the US embassy that "a Hamas operative, Muslim Abuumar" would be arriving in Brazil on Friday from Kuala Lumpur.

The judge's decision approving the deportation cited Abuumar's social media postings of him meeting in Doha with Ismail Haniyeh, a chief political leader of Hamas.