The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by American Civil Liberties Union, accuses the US spy agencies of acting as accessory to detaining and torturing Naji Hamdan, a Lebanese American convicted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a vague terrorism charge, and failing to respond to its inquiry, based on the Freedom of Information Act, seeking details surrounding Hamdan's detention and torture in the UAE.
Hamdan was arrested in the UAE in August 2008 and held in a secret prison in Abu Dhabi without being charged of a crime, AP reported.
“This suit seeks to shed light on the US government's practice of contracting with foreign governments to detain, interrogate, and often torture individuals … because the US cannot lawfully engage in these tactics itself,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Jennie Pasquarella told ABC News.
The 44-year-old Hamdan, who came under FBI surveillance as director of the Hawthorne Islamic Center in Southern California, says he was brutally tortured by his American captors. He also alleges that he was blindfolded, beaten, and strapped to an electric chair while in detention.
He was later transferred to an official prison after the ACLU filed a lawsuit against US federal intelligence agencies for gross misconduct, and was charged with terrorism.
The ACLU lawsuit says the US will not cooperate with the organization in its effort to obtain information regarding the nature of Hamdan's imprisonment even after an initial request was filed under the Freedom of Information Act in January.
The notorious CIA has refused to comment on the lawsuit.
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