Court To Reconsider Lawsuit of Mistakenly Identified Terror Suspect
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A federal appeals court will reconsider the dismissal of a suit by a Canadian man who sued America claiming was stopped in a New York airport, forcibly transported to Syria, and tortured over alleged ties to Al Qaeda.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in New York in June agreed with a trial judge’s rejection of the suit filed by Maher Arar, who was mistakenly identified as a terror suspect while at John F. Kennedy International Airport. American officials sent him in 2002 to his native Syria, where he was jailed and tortured, according to a Canadian inquiry that found he wasn’t linked to terrorism.
The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which represented Mr. Arar, said in a statement that the decision to rehear the case was “extremely” rare. “For the court to take such extraordinary action on its own indicates the importance the judges place on the case,” a lawyer at the center, Maria LaHood, said.
The lawsuit challenged “extraordinary rendition,” a process by which federal authorities have, without legal proceedings in American courts, allegedly sent suspected terrorists to be held and tortured in other countries. A trial judge in Brooklyn rejected Mr. Arar’s claims and a three-judge appellate panel upheld the ruling.
The center asked for the re-hearing. The appeals court said in a two-page order Wednesday that the majority of active judges had voted in a poll to re-hear the case and will do so as a full court.
In June, two of three judges on the appeals court said they wouldn’t “disregard the clear instructions of the Supreme Court” and allow the suit, which sought money damages under the federal Torture Victim Protection Act. The court also declined to allow trial courts “to intrude deeply into the national security policies and foreign relations of the United States.”
The U.S. Justice Department said in June that Mr. Arar was legally deported to Syria and that the government had “received assurances from Syria that he would not be tortured.”
Mr. Arar won support from American and Canadian scholars, as well as former federal judges and legal advocacy groups, in so-called friend of the court briefs filed with the appeals court.
