Algerian accused of training 9/11 pilots refused compensation for a shattered life
By Ian Herbert, THe Independent Published, 23 February 2007
Lotfi Raissi had modest aspirations for a life in Britain – to work as an airline pilot, watch Premiership football and visit the theatre occasionally. Then British security services pulled him from his bed in a Berkshire flat at 3am on the morning of 21 September 2001.
It was the beginning of a six-year ordeal in which he would be named as a flight instructor of the 9/11 hijackers, locked up in Belmarsh jail for five months to await extradition to the US and, ultimately, be released when no evidence of his involvement materialised.
With his reputation irrevocably sullied – more than 500 news reports worldwide named him as the first person accused of participating in the New York attacks – the best Mr Raissi had hoped for was the right to seek compensation. But this was denied him yesterday by two High Court judges, who ruled that the Home Secretary was entitled to exclude the 32-year-old Algerian from a Home Office ex-gratia compensation scheme for victims of miscarriages of justice.
Lord Justice Auld and Mr Justice Wilkie, sitting at the High Court in London, ruled that the scheme, designed to compensate those who have been detained in the UK for the loss they have suffered as the result of a formal and wrongful accusation of crime, did not cover those held pending extradition. Mr Raissi’s case was not in « the domestic criminal process », they said.
Mr Raissi’s solicitors, Tuckers, have lodged an appeal. They argue that those involved in his arrest – the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, which advises the police from the outset of investigations – were « domestic » agencies. Mr Raissi said he was prepared to take his case to the House of Lords. « The actions of the police have ruined me, » he said. « I’ve applied for hundreds of jobs but I don’t even get replies. Who – if not the British police – was responsible for my arrest? »
Mr Raissi insists that the police, whose conduct in the case remains under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, were involved in seizing evidence from his flat which the US considered integral to its extradition case. This included video footage from his laptop which the US said captured Mr Raissi, a flying instructor, in Arizona with Hani Hanjour, the Saudi pilot who is thought to have flown American Airlines flight 77 into the Pentagon and who, the US initially claimed, was trained by Mr Raissi.
After Mr Raissi’s lawyers pointed out that the poor quality webcam footage actually showed him with a cousin and a friend at his flat, the US made no further mention of the video and gradually other « evidence » evaporated in the same way. Claims that the two men had flown in the same aircraft on 8 March 1999, and that Mr Raissi had been funded by al-Qa’ida, were both unfounded.
After the serious charges collapsed, Mr Raissi faced extradition to the US on minor charges that he failed to declare an old theft conviction and a tennis injury when applying for his US pilot’s licence. In April 2002, a British judge said there was « no evidence » to suggest he was involved in terrorism and ordered his release.
« I was arrested because they were looking desperately for somebody to arrest, wanted a scapegoat and I – an Algerian in Britain – fitted the bill, » Mr Raissi said yesterday, reflecting on the collapse of the bright hopes he had when his US student visa ran out in 2000 and he moved to Britain to convert his US flying qualification to European standard.
He has been blacklisted by all airlines, and his wife, Sonia, who was also arrested in 2001, has been sacked from her ground-staff job with Air France. The only financial compensation has been a pay-out from The Mail on Sunday which, while publishing details of the case against Mr Raissi, added the allegation that he had also stolen the identity of a 74-year-old grandmother who had died four years earlier.
The assumption of guilt which Mr Raissi says he faces is worse in Britain than in Algeria, where his father, a retired pilot, and his mother both live. « Many Algerian people are frustrated by what they see as a miscarriage of justice, » he said.
He insists he will not leave Britain. « I’m not going anywhere with my tail between my legs, » he said. « The court’s decision allows the Home Secretary to ignore the part played by those public bodies in ruining my life. But I have no choice but to keep my faith in British justice and pray that it won’t be too much longer in coming. »
Raissi’s six-year ordeal
1996: Lotfi Raissi leaves Algeria for the US with ambitions to be a pilot
October 2000: With a US commercial pilots’ licence, he and wife, Sonia, leave US for life in Britain
21 September 2001: In 3am raid, he is arrested on suspicion of involvement in New York attacks. His wife and brother are also arrested. They are released after four days but Mr Raissi is sent to Belmarsh
12 February 2003: Judge allows Mr Raissi bail, after saying there seemed to be no credibility to US claims about him
21 April 2003: All charges are dropped. Successfully sues The Mail on Sunday for libel
October 2006: Mr Raissi pursues Government for compensation
February 2007: Compensation denied. Mr Raissi to appeal. Algeria refuses to sign agreement with UK over extradition of hijackers until it acknowledges its treatment of Mr Raissi was flawed
