Earlier in mid-March, the court had declared him fugitive and rejected his petition for allowing him to stay in the United States. Last week, the court also refused to hear his case once again.

A source in the foreign ministry yesterday said Mohiuddin's lawyer convinced the court to get his application reheard.

Sources in Dhaka and Washington hinted that the deportation "might be delayed until all legal options are exhausted". They said if his lawyers fail to get any redress in the Circuit Court, they might move to the US Supreme Court.

The San Francisco court had ruled Mohiuddin "assisted or participated" in the persecution of others for political reasons and said the August '75 coup that assassinated the country's founding father and first president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahmna and most members of his family was an act of terrorism.

After the court verdict, the US authorities arrested and kept him detained at an immigration detention centre near Long Beach, Calif., since mid-March.

The first attempt to deport him after the San Francisco court's judgment was stayed by the intervention of California Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International has urged Canada to grant asylum to Mohiuddin, days after his daughter made an emotional appeal to Ottawa to take him following the US court's order to deport him.

The international human-right watchdog urged the Canadian government "to ensure that he (Mohiuddin) is not returned to Bangladesh to face the death penalty".

A similar plea was also made by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.