Supporters of Farouk Abdel-Muhti claim Wednesday's transfer was retaliation for his role in leading a hunger strike by detainees at the Passaic County Jail in Paterson.

They also say sending him to the York County Jail, about two hours west of Philadelphia, will make it more difficult for his lawyers to pursue a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Newark challenging his continued detention and demanding he be allowed to remain in the United States.

"This transfer interferes with Farouk's constitutional right to legal representation," said MacDonald Scott, one of several lawyers helping Abdel-Muhti challenge his detention. "The removal so far from the venue where his case is being heard goes against his due process rights."

Abdel-Muhti is suing the government, claiming it has been holding him longer than its own standards permit. He also claims that as a stateless Palestinian, there is no nation to which he can legally be deported. The case is pending.

Ben Jacob, a spokesman for the Newark INS office, said the agency "routinely, for administrative purposes, moves detainees." He declined comment on the claims of Abdel-Muhti's supporters that the transfer was punitive in nature.

Abdel-Muhti was arrested in April 2002 on the basis of a 1995 deportation order. The arrest came a month after he began working with a New York radio station, WBAI, to arrange live telephone interviews with Palestinians in the West Bank.

Last month, Abdel-Muhti and five other detainees in the Paterson jail carried out an eight-day hunger strike to protest conditions there.

Five of the detainees were transferred to the Hudson County Jail in Kearny, where they claim conditions are better, including the granting of contact visits. But Abdel-Muhti refused an offer to be moved there, instead demanding his immediate release.