Britain to pay compensation to former 9/11 suspect

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - Britain agreed on Friday to pay compensation to an Algerian pilot who was put in jail for five months after he was wrongly accused of involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Lotfi Raissi was arrested 10 days after the attacks on New York and Washington, threatened with extradition to the United States and put in a maximum security prison because U.S. police thought he had been involved in the al Qaeda plot.

But the allegations against him proved to be false and he was later released. Raissi has been trying to clear his name ever since, saying he had been blacklisted from all airline jobs and that his life had been ruined.

"This is one of the best days of my life. I am completely exonerated now by the Ministry of Justice and I am delighted," he told BBC TV. "My life was destroyed, my career was destroyed. It was hell for me for the last nine years. I suffered discrimination, I suffered racism, my life wasn't safe."

...

This was rejected by the British government in 2004 but four years later, the Court of Appeal ordered ministers to reconsider saying the way extradition proceedings and refusal of bail had been conducted amounted to "an abuse of process".

...

An independent assessor will consider how much he should be paid, but Raissi said the money was not important.

"I was fighting for justice. What I want at the end of it is an apology," he said, adding he hoped to be allowed to fly again.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE63M1Y3.htm

[Soylent Brice]

1. sad that it had to come to that in the first place, but

credit where credit is due.

K&R

[wildbilln864]

2. k&r! nt