Four years after the United States signed a global accord condemning torture, federal immigration authorities have finally granted protection to one of the scores of people seeking to use the agreement to avoid deportation, in this case an Iraqi army deserter who had been whipped, punched and hanged by his heels from a ceiling fan.

The 28-year-old Iraqi national, an ethnic Kurd, likely will be freed next week after more than a year of custody at the INS detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., his lawyer, Mary McClenahan, said Thursday after she met with her client and told him the news.

But INS officials also said they would apply the torture convention as they see fit, not allow their decisions to be appealed and reserve the right to keep people in detention or even send them back to their native countries. The Iraqi granted protection Wednesday, for example, might be subject to deportation "if, for example, Iraq became a democracy," said Ryan. "This isn't a permanent sort of situation." Rights activists said the agency needs more oversight of its decisions.