Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (John Ashcroft) can be brought to court as a defendant in a suit for unlawful detention. The decision on Friday, September 4, received federal appeals court in Idaho, having reviewed the treatment of U.S. citizen Abdullah al-Kidd (Abdullah al-Kidd), arrested in March 2003 without charges.
Law enforcement authorities hoped to use al-Kidd as the main witness in the case of imminent terrorist attack. No charges against al-Kidd was made, but in prison he spent 13 months. The suspect in the preparation of the attack Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, against which al-Kidd was supposed to testify, was acquitted by the court.
In 2006, al-Kidd filed suit against Ashcroft, who held the post of U.S. Attorney General from 2001 to 2004, and other officials, charging them with responsibility for work by the authorities after the attacks of 11 September 2001 the policy of detention without charge. The petition alleged that the victims of such policies become Muslims, for whom there was no evidence of involvement in terrorism, but they were kept in detention on the grounds that they may become the principal witnesses.
Then the claim to the consideration has not been introduced, and al-Kidd asked the appellate court. Ashcroft sent to the appellate court hearing an al-Kidd, a statement which said that "the detention of material witnesses is one of the most important steps to prevent terrorist attacks."
In May 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court considered a similar lawsuit filed against John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller, a native of Pakistan, Javaid Iqbal, arrested on suspicion of terrorism. Iqbal had been imprisoned for three years, accusations of involvement in terrorism, he had not been presented. Lawsuit Iqbal Supreme Court rejected.
