New York: A Muslim American man held two weeks without charge after the 9/11 attacks will get $385,000 compensation from the US government and an FBI agent, a rights group said yesterday.
Abdullah Al Kidd was detained in 2003 as a “material witness,” a formulation used in the US after the 2001 attacks to ensure suspects were available to testify in terrorism cases. He was held in solitary confinement. He said he suffered daily strip searches and was detained under harsh conditions including 24-hour illumination of his cell. He was then placed on probation for 15 months.
Al Kidd was never charged with any crime and never called to testify at the trial of a student accused of visa fraud for which he was arrested. The trial resulted in a verdict of not guilty.
The US government offered “regrets” and agreed to compensate Al Kidd, an American convert to Islam, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said.
“I am pleased the government has finally acknowledged the trouble it put me through and compensated me for it. I hope no one else has to go through what I went through,” Al Kidd said.
He was held for 16 days and moved to three federal prisons in three states, ACLU said.
The rights group announced the settlement after suing on Al Kidd’s behalf. “The government acknowledges that your arrest and detention as a witness was a difficult experience for you and regrets any hardship or disruption to your life that may have resulted from your arrest and detention,” it quoted officials as writing to Al Kidd.
“The government systematically abused the material witness process after September 11,” said Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director, ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. AFP
