Free Republic

The government’s jailing of terrorism witnesses for a grand jury probe of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is unconstitutional, a federal judge concluded Tuesday in dismissing a perjury case against a Jordanian college student. In a ruling that, if upheld, would have far reaching implications on the government’s approach to investigating terrorism, Judge Shira Scheindlin attacked the reasoning of Attorney General John Ashcroft. She criticized Ashcroft’s reported statement that “aggressive detention of lawbreakers and material witnesses is vital to preventing, disrupting or delaying new attacks.” Scheindlin wrote that “Relying on the material witness statute to detain people who are presumed...

An Egyptian student detained after a pilot's aviation radio was found in his hotel room following the Sept. 11 attacks should be allowed to sue an FBI agent over his imprisonment, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Abdallah Higazy, the son of an Egyptian diplomat, should be allowed to try to prove that the actions of an FBI agent, Michael Templeton, caused him to be unjustly criminally charged and imprisoned for 34 days. Higazy claimed he was charged with making false statements after Templeton coerced him into changing his story several times...