Lawyer accused of spying on Muslim colleagues gives up law license

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Lawyer accused of spying on Muslim colleagues provides up regulation license

By Debra Cassens Weiss

March 5, 2024, 12:25 pm CST

A lawyer has resigned from the bar after he was accused of spying on his colleagues at an Ohio-based chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy and civil rights group.

The Ohio Supreme Courtroom accepted the resignation of lawyer Romin Iqbal of Dublin, Ohio, on Monday, the Columbus Dispatch studies.

A disciplinary motion in opposition to Iqbal was pending, however particulars are sealed in such instances.

Ohio Supreme Courtroom Justice Pat Fischer dissented due to the “transparency downside” posed by sealed proceedings. He went on to supply data on Iqbal that’s obtainable from public sources, together with the Columbus Dispatch.

Iqbal labored with the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for 15 years, together with three years during which he was the manager director starting in 2018. An inner investigation by the Council on American-Islamic Relations discovered that since no less than 2008, Iqbal had supplied confidential details about the group to the Investigative Mission on Terrorism.

The investigative venture is a nonprofit that seeks to show terrorist organizations. The Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and different teams have labeled the venture an anti-Islamic hate group.

Iqbal reportedly shared confidential assembly recordings, emails and strategic plans with the investigative venture. The Council on American-Islamic Relations fired Iqbal in 2021.

“Iqbal broke the belief and confidentiality of the group he was working for, and by working immediately opposite to that group’s pursuits, he opened himself as much as disciplinary expenses,” Fischer wrote. “For transparency functions and for the safety of the general public, I might not settle for Iqbal’s utility for retirement or resignation with disciplinary motion pending.”

The Columbus Dispatch was unable to achieve Iqbal for remark. A lawyer who as soon as represented Iqbal, David Thomas, declined to remark to the publication. The ABA Journal left a message at a cellphone quantity for Iqbal listed by the state bar however didn’t get a right away response.

Amina Barhumi, the present government director of the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, instructed the Columbus Dispatch that Iqbal’s resignation from the bar “begins to offer some kind of closure for the neighborhood.”