World

Gov't to pay $1.2 million to 5 wrongfully detained Muslims

by smkovalinsky | November 3, 2009 at 01:14 pm

61 views | 2 Recommendations | 1 comment

The U.S. government will pay $1.2 million in a settlement to five Muslim immigrants who were unjustly detained after 9/11.

The 5 men were housed in a Brooklyn, N.Y. prison. According to the New York Times, the prison held hundreds of non-citizens for months before they were deported after being cleared of any links or connections with terrorist activities or organizations.

“I believe a settlement of this size is a deterrent to the United States from ever again rounding up innocent non-citizens based only on suspicion about their race and religion,” said Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents the detainees, to the Times. ~NYU College News

While Meeropol is content with the settlement, one of the five Muslims represented in the case said to the Times that the settlement was an act of reluctant compromise, as there has been seven years full of motions, cross-appeals, and delays.
In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs detail their unjust experiences, saying that they were treated abusively as soon as they got to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. They were chained and shackled, then slammed face first into a wall with an American flag t-shirt taped to it. Whenever they left their cells, the detainees were cursed at as terrorists and then shoved into walls. The escort officers would twist their fingers and wrists, and stepped on their chains so they would trip.

According to the Times, several of the guards have been disciplined and several have also been convicted of beating the inmates, including a captain. This case is part of a larger lawsuit, Turkmen v. Ashcroft, that argues that the roundups of non-citizens and the treatment they received are unconstitutional.