evidence. Approximately two hours later Judge McAvoy denied the defense motion in a "Classified Order," something even more unheard of. Then on March 22, 2006, the defense filed a petition for mandamus with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging Judge McAvoy's decision and arguing that the process had violated Aref's constitutional rights–the NYCLU also filed a brief supporting the right of public access to court decisions. In July 2008, the Second Circuit turned down the petition. The federal appeals court upheld the conviction. "The evidence sufficed for a jury to conclude that Aref [and Hossain] intended to aid in preparing a missile attack on American soil." PBS program On April 20, 2007, the Aref/Hossain case was featured on the PBS Documentary "Security Versus Liberty: The Other War," which contained interviews with defense attorneys, the mosque President, and representatives from the FBI and the US Attorney's Office. Son of Mountains While he was in Rensselaer County Jail awaiting sentencing, Aref wrote a memoir. Stephen Downs helped him put the story into standard English, and editor Jeanne Finley did further editing. The book was published in March 2008. Son of Mountains is the non-fiction story of the life of Aref, an Iraqi Kurd who grew up under the rule of Saddam Hussein and later risked his life opposing him. Aref traverses the landscape of his childhood in Iraqi Kurdistan under Saddam; details the decision to leave Kurdistan for Syria, where he and his wife and children, although poor, make a new life, and then as UN refugees come to the United States; describes his brief residence in America as an immigrant and imam at a small mosque before his arrest, prosecution, and conviction in the "terror case"; and records his experiences over 18 months at the Rensselaer County Jail. Return to Kurdistan Aref returned to Iraqi Kurdistan on June 11, 2019 after finishing his 15-year sentence in October, 2018. When Yassin was released from prison, he didn't want to fight deportation - he was taken to York County Prison (an ICE detention center) to await an eventual flight home to northern Iraq, where his wife and daughters were waiting for him. After his attorney filed a habeas petition, and a hearing was held in Scranton, PA on June 7, Aref called his son, Salah, on June 9 to say he was being taken to the airport. Aref made it safely home