Five Muslim men wrongfully jailed in a post-9/11 sweep have won a $1.26 million settlement from the federal government, their lawyers said Tuesday.

The agreement ends a suit filed one year after the World Trade Center attack, which prompted the detention of 84 immigrants at the Metropolitan Detention Center between Sept. 11, 2001, and September 2002.

"We were deprived of our rights and abused simply because of our religion and the color of our skin," :ph43r: said plaintiff Yasser Ebrahim, 37, who now lives in Egypt.

"After seven long years, I am relieved to be able to try to rebuild my life. ... I sincerely hope this will never happen again."

The suit charged the men were rounded up and thrown behind bars based simply on racial and religious profiling. All five in the lawsuit were eventually deported.

The government admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement papers filed late Monday in Brooklyn Federal Court. The Justice Department declined comment.

The suit was filed against then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and officials at the federal lockup.

According to the suit, the five immigrants were wrongfully detained and abused inside the Brooklyn jail.

Guards smashed prisoners' faces into a wall decorated with an American flag T-shirt and the slogan "These colors don't run," lawyers charged.

New arrivals at the MDC were pushed against the blood-stained T-shirt and told, "Welcome to America," the lawyers said.
:usa:

"We applaud our clients for being willing to fight seven long years," said lawyer Michael Winger. "We hope the federal government will take the hint and not repeat this outrage."



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2...p_for_126_.html

RECENT COMMENTS FROM DAILY NEWS READERS


ezekiel14
4:12:34 PM
Nov 3, 2009

Prryhus, maybe if people like you didn't support racial profiling and guilt by association, we would not have this problem.


3011heath
6:07:42 PM
Nov 3, 2009

Kanak and Zeke- you hypocritical phonies, I dare you to show me anyone in this country on 9/12 who would have come to these people's defense.


McQueen
6:31:18 PM
Nov 3, 2009

Fine, but they should pay the money back to this country for entering/staying in this country illegally.


ClnSwp09
6:40:49 PM
Nov 3, 2009

Once they were deported the lawsuit should have been dropped. These ****/e/r/s/ don't deserve nothing from this country! Racial profiling, ha! Should not matter anyways, they got it right, didn't they? They were all here illegally, were they not?


w.c.brown
6:55:47 PM
Nov 3, 2009

Nowhere does it state that they were here illegally in this country. They could have been here on student visas, work visas, whatever. I'm sure that the lawsuit would not have been settled by the government if were found that they were here illegally.


kanaka5000notvote4bloomberg
7:46:38 PM
Nov 3, 2009

pyrrhus, you would have saved a lot more money on your taxes if the police didn't make these show arrests that the police clearly knew were outside of the Constitution and civil rights, you've heard of Habeas Corpus?As to who would have come to their defense on 9/12, I do remember prominent media figures and media outlets reaching out to Muslim Americans in the days after 9/11 to show that we're all in it together, one of the great things about the American character that was until the nazi thugs of the bush administration suspended the Constitution, civil rights and Habeas Corpus.I'm still curious to know what these innocent men did to be treated so brutally ,be confined and deported after doing everything to good respectful citizens?I want more investigations of everyone involved all the way up to the criminals in the last administration and when their done their they should go after bloomberg and kelly for the phony show arrests they were making on bad information and very,very thin


kanaka5000notvote4bloomberg
7:47:57 PM
Nov 3, 2009

cont. when their done their they should go after bloomberg and kelly for the phony show arrests they were making on bad information and very,very thin evidence.Sue em all !


CR07
8:18:14 PM
Nov 3, 2009

If the five lads were so innocent, why were they deported? They should be flown back to the USA, and given citizenship, and a 2BR Apt. in a Manhattan Co-op. They will use our laws to destroy us.


Sosadworld
1:34:56 AM
Nov 4, 2009

And the Taliban claims another victory ...


dinqEdau
3:13:09 AM
Nov 4, 2009

This country cannot give islams enough free largesse and compensation.No wonder they all come over to this country and start making demands immediately.When you start seeing a mosque on every corner and this country starts wearing bags and pungent scraggly beards and there are heads being lopped off in the streets then everybody is going to wonder what happened.I think five 9mm's to the head would have been a satisfactory remedy for this nonsense.

if you sue they will pay :nope:

Sadly, you're right.

The only thing those miserable death-cultists :ph43r: should have received is a bill for the cost of the plane tickets. :upset: