U.S. settles suit with Muslims in post-9/11 abuse

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government will pay $1.26 million to five Muslim men detained for months without charges after the Sept. 11 attacks who sued for unlawful imprisonment and abuse, their lawyers said on Tuesday.

The men claimed they suffered inhumane and degrading treatment in a Brooklyn detention center, including solitary confinement, severe beatings, incessant verbal abuse and a blackout on communications with their families and attorneys.

Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer for the Center for Constitutional Rights who brought the case in Brooklyn federal court, said it was the largest settlement so far for claims of abuse in the United States following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The Justice Department agreed to settle the suit, which was filed in 2002 after hundreds of immigrants were rounded up and held for months following the attacks, according to the CCR.

A spokesman for the U.S. Justice Department was not immediately available to comment on the settlement, in which the U.S. government admits no liability or fault. The five men were all eventually released after being cleared of any connection to terrorism but then deported.

One of the men, Yasser Ebrahim, will receive the largest payout of $356,250 minus legal fees. "After seven long years, I am relieved to be able to rebuild my life," he said in a CCR statement.

"We were deprived of our rights and abused simply because of our religion and the color of our skin," he said. "I know that I and others are still affected by what happened and that communities in the U.S. continue to feel the fallout. I sincerely hope this will never happen again."