Government forces in Guinea killed Malik Jarno's father in 1998 and his brother disappeared around the same time, the Washington Post reported Friday.

His mother had died years before so he sought a home with relatives in Europe, but they did not want to raise a retarded relative and so, at age 16, he was put him on a plane bound for Dulles Airport with a fake passport.

Jarno then spent nearly three years in jail before a team of pro-bono lawyers took up his asylum plea, at which point he began to receive widespread publicity. Amnesty International and more than 70 members of Congress have written to the Department of Homeland Security (OTCBB:HSCC) to support him.

Last year he was released to a home for refugees in York, Pa., where he attends high school.

The youth's lawyer, who said Judge Joan V. Churchill of the federal immigration court in Arlington issued a written opinion Wednesday, vowed an appeal.