UK: No compensation for innocent Algerian detained for 5 months
01 January 2007
Loft Raissi, the 32-year old Algerian pilot who spent nearly five months in Belmarsh top security prison after being wrongly accused by the United States of training the 11 September hijackers, suffered another indignity in February when the High Court excluded him from a Home Office compensation scheme for victims of miscarriages of justice. Two judges, Lord Justice Auld and Mr Justice Wilkie, ruled that Mr Raissi had been held in extradition proceedings that were not part of the "domestic" criminal process and therefore did not fall within the compensation scheme. Mr Raissi's lawyers have said that he will appeal the ruling. The verdict was described as a "body blow" by Lofti (see
Statewatch Vol. 12 no 1, Vol. 13 no 5 and Vol. 14 nos 3/4).
Lofti, who was the first person to be accused of participating in the 11 September attacks, was arrested at home by armed police on the morning of 21 September 2001. His wife, Sonia, and brother Mohammed were also detained on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activity. He was held in extradition proceedings and told that he would be charged with conspiracy to murder and that he could face the death penalty in the United States. He was released in February 2002 and the case against him was dismissed in April, the judge pointing out that there was no evidence whatsoever to support the US allegation that he had been involved in terrorism. There can be little doubt that the precipitous actions of domestic agencies, such as the security services, police and Crown Prosecution Service, played a key role in the US extradition case.
Among the "evidence" seized by the police from Mr Raissi's home was video footage that formed an integral part of the US extradition case. According to the US the film showed Mr Raissi, who was working as a flying instructor in the US, in Arizona with Hani Hanjour, who is thought to have been the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77 which crashed into the Pentagon. The poor quality video actually showed Lofti with his cousin and a friend in his flat. The footage was silently dropped as were other allegations based on equally spurious misrepresentations. The US eventually dropped their terrorist claims but proceeded to insist on Lofti's extradition on the minor charges of failing to declare a conviction for theft and failing to declare a tennis injury when applying for a US pilot's license.
Loft Raissi commented:
I cannot accept that the police and the Crown Prosecution Service are not domestic...The court's decision allows the home secretary to ignore the part played by those public bodies in ruining my life.
Since his wrongful arrest the qualified pilot, has applied for hundreds of jobs without receiving replies because he has been blacklisted by the airlines. His wife, Sonia, who was also arrested in 2001, has been sacked from her job as a stewardess for Air France. The only financial compensation that the Raissi family have received was an out-of-court settlement from the Mail on Sunday which made false allegations in reporting the case against him. Despite his enforced destitution Loft Raissi is determined to fight for justice and have his innocence acknowledged. As he put it: "Who, if not the British police, was responsible for my arrest?"
Independent 22-23.2.07; Guardian 22-23.2.07