Texas judge orders mosque fire suspect held on separate charge | Reuters
By Jon Herskovitz | AUSTIN, Texas AUSTIN, Texas A man detained after federal prosecutors said he was involved in a fire in January that destroyed a Texas mosque has been ordered held on a charge unrelated to the arson, court records showed.A federal judge ordered Marq Perez, 25, to be detained after he appeared in U.S. district court on Thursday in Corpus Christi but Perez's lawyer Mark Di Carlo on Friday said he was being held because of "hearsay based on hearsay."Perez was charged with "possession of an unregistered destructive device" unrelated to the fire at the Victoria Islamic Center, about 125 miles (200 km) southwest of Houston, court records showed.There was no description of the device in court papers, but Di Carlo said it was five large firecrackers bundled together and having a single fuse.Islamic rights groups have said they saw the fire as part of a growing wave of bigotry toward Muslims in the United States. President Donald Trump, a Republican, was elected last November having promised to impose a ban on Muslims entering the country, which he said would help protect Americans from terrorism.
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