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Freed Terror Suspect Seeks $10 Million From U.S.

By Jeralyn, Section Terror Trials
Posted on Tue Sep 16, 2003 at 11:55:12 PM EST
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We haven't seen this reported in very many American papers, but it is all over the European press. A terror suspect arrested and jailed in Great Britain for five months as a result of a U.S. extradition request has sued the U.S. and the F.B.I. for $10 Million in Damages :

A pilot who spent five months in a British jail accused of training Sept. 11 hijackers has filed $10 million claims against both the FBI and U.S. Justice Department for ruining his life, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Lotfi Raissi, a British-based Algerian who studied at a flight school in Arizona, was arrested in London 10 days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and held at the high-security Belmarsh prison.

Washington accused Raissi, 29, of training some of the hijackers. But he was later cleared of wrongdoing by a British judge, who said U.S. officials had failed to present any evidence to back up accusations that he had links to terrorism.

Lawyer Jules Carey in London said Raissi's legal team had filed claims with the Justice Department and the FBI in the United States seeking damages for wrongful prosecution and imprisonment. Even though the allegations against him were proved false, no airline will now employ Raissi as a pilot, Carey said.

"The consequences for Mr Raissi have been utterly ruinous," he said. "His entire life, both personal and professional has been blighted by the allegations and it is time for the US and UK authorities to acknowledge their part in his undoing."

The Sunday Mirror reported on the case (3/4/03, available on Lexis.com):

Last year the US accused Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian pilot living in Britain, of being the "lead instructor" of the 9/11 hijackers. There was, said the FBI, video evidence and telephone records to back up their case and Raissi could face the death penalty. But then nothing, no evidence was produced and after months in custody he was freed.

The Guardian reported on the details of the U.S. case against Raissi (7/4/03, available on Lexis.com):

According to Amnesty International: "The US authorities' reasons for seeking Lotfi Raissi's extradition included the fact that his identity and profession fit a certain profile: an Algerian man and a Muslim, a pilot and a flight instructor in the USA." So what if he's not guilty. He just has to look the part.

The case sounded familiar to us, and we remembered that we too had commented on the case during Mr. Raissi's imprisonment, agreeing with the British Courts decision to release him on bail, over the objections of the U.S. The U.S. had gone to great lengths to argue to the British court that he should remain behind bars. The case was continued a few times while the Court gave the U.S. more time to produce evidence against Raissi, which it was never able to do.

From the transcript of Greta Van Susteren's On The Record , 2/12/02 (available on Lexis.com):

VAN SUSTEREN: On the day Americans were warned to prepare for another terrorist attack, a British judge linked to the 9/11 terrorists. The Algerian pilot suspected of training the suicide hijackers is out on bail. His passport -- it's been revoked, and he's ordered not to leave Britain.

Was the release on bail in Britain something you think was wise?

JERALYN MERRITT, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think it was not only wise, I think it was the only fair decision to make. This man has been held for five months. He's had over six court hearings. And in all of that time, the United States government has not been able to produce any evidence that links him to the terrorists. His extradition is being sought to this country for making false statements on a pilot's application. That is the only reason they are seeking his extradition. And for that, someone should be allowed bail.

VAN SUSTEREN: Jeralyn, there's been a suggestion that he helped train the Hani Hanjour, the pilot of the flight that went into the Pentagon on September 11, but never charged with that. Is that significant to you?

MERRITT: I think it is significant. First of all, his own lawyers have said that all of those allegations have proven false. They have the records from the flight training school. They did not fly on the same plane. They did not train together. And there is no evidence that actually links them. And the judge found today that it is extremely unlikely that the United States will bring terrorist charges against this man, and the prosecutor in Britain who is representing the United States today agreed with that assessment.

This case has the potential to be another black mark on the Administrations' handling of Muslim suspects in the terror war. We'll keep following it.

In the Osama bin Forgotten department: While we were searching our archives here and at CrimeLynx for articles on Raissi, we came across this New York Times article from October, 2000, eleven months before the 9/11 attacks. It details a sudden plea agreement between Ali A. Mohamed, a top deputy to Osama bin Laden who previously had been a sergeant in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Attorneys' office for the Southern District. Mohamed had provided military training to bin Laden's bodyguards and operatives in the 90's. He wanted to make a deal with the Government and provide information on bin Laden.

The plea deal could give the government an extraordinary look at Mr. bin Laden's worldwide operations, as conveyed by Mr. Mohamed, a former Egyptian intelligence officer who later spent three years assigned to a Special Forces unit at Fort Bragg, N.C., and became a United States citizen.

He left the Army in 1989. In later years, Mr. Mohamed, 48, said in court on Friday, he gave military training to Mr. bin Laden's operatives, trained his bodyguards in his compound in Khartoum, Sudan, and conducted surveillance, at Mr. bin Laden's request, of the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. bin Laden pointed to one of Mr. Mohamed's photographs to show where a suicide bomber could go in a truck near the embassy, Mr. Mohamed told Judge Leonard B. Sand of Federal District Court in Manhattan.

After Mr. Mohamed was taken into custody on Sept. 10, 1998, the office of the United States attorney, Mary Jo White, with Mr. Mohamed's consent, took the unusual step of keeping his arrest secret for eight months while it tried to negotiate a deal with him.

In May 1999, when the plea bargaining talks broke down, Mr. Mohamed was publicly indicted and joined his five co-defendants in the public arraignments and hearings. But he still seemed like an outsider in their midst.

Then in October, 2000, Mohamed suprises everyone by pleading guilty to being part of a terrorist conspiracy.

If Mr. Mohamed was that high up in bin Laden's organization, and was cooperating with U.S. authorites, surely he would have had some details of the 9/11 attacks to provide during his many debriefings. We wonder what happened to Mr. Mohamed and his information.

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