Cleared Algerian wins payout right

Last Modified: 14 Feb 2008
By: Katie Razzall

The Court of Appeal rules the British government owes Lotfi Raissi, wrongly accused of training 9/11 attackers, a payout and an apology.

Mr Raissi says his life has been "destroyed" by the events of September 2001 and that he "wept with relief" when the judge handed down today's verdict. The Ministry of Justice is considering whether to appeal.

This may finally be the start of a new beginning for Lofti Raissi. His life has never recovered from him being falsely accused of links to the 9/11 hijackers a fortnight after the attacks, six and half years ago.

He's an Algerian Muslim, who dreamt of being a commercial pilot, but instead became a prime suspect.

The United States sent documents to the UK claiming he had trained at least one hijacker at a Boeing 737 flying school in Arizona.

Mr Raissi's west London home was raided by police 10 days after the September 11 attacks; he then spent the next five months in Belmarsh prison, fearing for his life every day he said, blamed by others for the thousands killed.

The papers were full of how he'd trained four of the 9/11 attackers. The Americans claimed to have video footage of Mr Raissi with a hijacker but it wasn't him.

They said they had written evidence of his links with the attackers but the dates didn't match up.

The Americans eventually failed in their efforts to get him extradited and Mr Raissi was a free man.

Lord Justice Hooper said in the appeal court ruling today: "It appears to us to be likely that the extradition proceedings were used for an ulterior purpose, namely to secure the appellant's detention in custody in order to allow time for the US authorities to provide evidence of a terrorist offence."

The consequences have, Mr Raissi says, been devastating. His flying career is finished. He has been unable to get a job; he's lost his home and his wife and his family are traumatised.

Finally the courts have said he is entitled to compensation from the British government - six years on from this interview on Channel 4 News.

Lord Justice Hooper also said today: "The public labelling of the appellant as a terrorist by the authorities in this country, and particularly by the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), over a period of many months has had and continues to have, so it is said, a devastating effect on his life and on his health.

"He considers that, unless he receives a public acknowledgement that he is not a terrorist, he will be unable to get his life back together again."

Human rights groups point out that Mr Raissi was lucky in one sense. He was arrested before the 2003 Extradition Act came into force, otherwise he'd have been despatched to the US, they say, without the possibility of a British court considering the strength of the charges against him.