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Ashcroft
(R) and Mueller are among the defendants.
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NEW
YORK, January 24, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A
Muslim detained for months without charge after September 11 and then
deported to Egypt has given a deposition in New York in a suit against
the US government for unlawful imprisonment and abuse.
Yasser
Ibrahim, one of four Muslim men allowed to return to participate in
the case and who were cleared of any connection to terrorism, said
Monday, January 23, they suffered inhumane and degrading treatment in
a Brooklyn detention center, including solitary confinement, severe
beatings, incessant verbal abuse and a total blackout on
communications with their families and attorneys, Reuters reported.
Ibrahim's
attorneys said the men will be deposed over the next two weeks in a
class action suit against the government over the treatment of more
than 1,200 Muslim and South Asian men rounded up after the Sept. 11
attacks blamed on Al-Qaeda.
Ibrahim's
brother Hany was due to arrive in New York Monday, CCR legal director
Bill Goodman said, and the other two would arrive at some point in the
next two weeks.
Seeking
compensation and punitive measures, the four are among eight named
plaintiffs in the case, which names former Attorney General John
Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, immigration officials and
prison officers among the defendants.
The
case is handled by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).
In
August of 2004, a US judge has chided the US administration for
building a terrorism support case against two Muslims in New York on
false evidence.
A
May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded
that the Arab Americans and the Muslim community in the United States
have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers
applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Amnesty
International also repeatedly said that racial profiling by US law
enforcement agencies had grown dramatically in the wake of the 9/11
attacks.
“Gov’t
Paranoia”
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US
Muslims and Arabs have taken the brunt of sweeping federal powers
applied
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The
four men were allowed to come to the US only under strict conditions
including confinement to their hotel rooms throughout their stay.
The
CCR said the conditions also included a ban on their speaking to
anybody outside the case.
Goodman
said the restrictions on the four men were highly unusual in a civil
case and a sign of what he called government "paranoia over
Muslim and Middle Eastern men."
According
to The New York Times, which interviewed Ibrahim and his
brother Hany in Egypt last week, the two had lived in New York for
several years before Sept. 11. Yasser ran a Web site design business
and Hany worked in a delicatessen.
The
two were arrested Sept. 30, 2001, and held for around eight months,
even after an FBI memo from December 7 stated they were cleared of
links to terrorist groups, the lawsuit said.
Both
had entered the country on tourist visas, but stayed and began
working, and an immigration judge ordered their deportation on
November 20, 2001.
"I'm
seeking justice," Ibrahim was quoted as saying by The NY Times.
"It's from the same system that did us injustice before. But I
have faith in this system. I know what happened before was a
mistake."
Accountability
The
Federal Bureau of Prisons said it had fired two people, demoted two
more and six had been suspended for periods from two days to 30 days.
"It
means a lot to our clients that finally someone is being held
accountable for the brutality they experienced," said CCR
attorney Matthew Strugar.
"But
we believe the responsibility for these abuses goes further up the
chain of command at the Bureau of Prisons and we are disappointed more
individuals have not yet been held accountable."
A
2003 report by Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General
found that some prison officers slammed detainees against walls,
twisted their arms and hands in painful ways, stepped on their leg
restraint chains and punished them by keeping them restrained for long
periods.
The
December 3, 2003, report said videotapes showed some detention center
staff "misused strip searches and restraints to punish detainees
and that officers improperly and illegally recorded detainees'
meetings with their attorneys."
The
case comes as the Bush administration is being accused of disregarding
constitutional rights.
Last
week, the CCR and the American Civil Liberties Union filed lawsuits
asserting that President George W. Bush's authorization of wiretaps of
US citizens without court warrants was illegal.
