Wrongly accused 9/11 case pilot can claim damages
 

I hope this guy gets a result. What a nightmare to endure!
( A friend of mine,an ex freighter captain was wrongly locked up in an African prison for six months some years ago. Maggie Thatcher oiled the wheels to get him out.)
From the BBC website


A pilot wrongly accused of training the 9/11 hijackers is entitled to claim damages, the Court of Appeal has ruled.
Judges said evidence suggested police and prosecutors were responsible for "serious defaults" in detaining Lotfi Raissi in jail for nearly five months.

The ruling means the government has to reconsider the 33-year-old's claim for compensation, which it had refused.

Mr Raissi wants an apology and says his claim may run into millions of pounds. The government has said it may appeal.

He first applied for compensation in March 2004 under a Home Office scheme for people deprived of their liberty because of a miscarriage of justice.

They destroyed my life, they destroyed my career - for this I will never, ever forgive them

Speaking after the judgement, Mr Raissi, of west London, said he had suffered a miscarriage of justice, and had now been "completely exonerated".

"I am very glad. I always had faith in British justice.

"Surely I can expect to hear from the home secretary with the long-awaited apology very soon."

He said his wrongful arrest had left him blacklisted as a pilot and unable to work.

"They destroyed my life, they destroyed my career. For this I will never, ever forgive them," he said.

David Blunkett, who was Home Secretary when the Raissi case came to court in 2002, said the director of public prosecutions and the attorney general were responsible for deciding whether to take a case through the courts, not the home secretary.

The Home Office said the court's judgement reversed a decision made by the divisional court in the secretary of state's favour.

He considers that, unless he receives a public acknowledgement that he is not a terrorist, he will be unable to get his life back together again

Lord Justice Hooper

"We are considering the implications and whether or not to appeal," a Home Office spokesman said.

In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service said: "We will study the issues raised which affect us.

"The judgement reaches no firm conclusions regarding the CPS and we were not formally involved in the proceedings."

Blacklisted

In giving the court's judgment, Lord Justice Hooper said: "The public labelling of the appellant as a terrorist by the authorities in this country, and particularly by the CPS, over a period of many months has had and continues to have, so it is said, a devastating effect on his life and on his health.

"He considers that, unless he receives a public acknowledgement that he is not a terrorist, he will be unable to get his life back together again."

Mr Raissi has said his claim will include compensation for the time spent in prison and the money he paid to train as a pilot, estimated at about £60,000.

He is currently not working and says he is blacklisted from working for any airline. He also intends to claim for compensation for the loss of his career.

Mr Raissi says he also plans to claim for damage to his health and the general effect on his life and his family.

His brother, Mohamed, was also arrested and detained for 42 hours, but won compensation from the Metropolitan Police last year, the level of which has yet to be determined.

Mr Raissi's wife, Sonia, however had her damages claim for £150,000 for being held for five days rejected by the High Court.

Extradition warrant

The Algerian pilot was arrested under the Terrorism Act at his home in the UK soon after the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington in 2001. He was accused of having trained the 19 hijackers.

After seven days he was released but was re-arrested under an extradition warrant issued at the request of the US government.

He remained in Belmarsh Prison for four-and-a-half months until he was granted bail. The Crown Prosecution Service, which was representing the US, had objected to bail.

In April 2002, a judge ruled that there was no evidence connecting him to terrorism.

His appeal case was originally brought against the home secretary, but following the department's split, a decision on any compensation will be made by the Justice Secretary, Jack Straw.

This whole case stinks from the beginning. The bottom line is that the security services or who ever took a course of action that has resulted in long term issues for this man that will affect his earning potential for the rest of his life.

You make a mistake you pay....

Shame the same can't be said for those responsible for the jailing of Stefan Kiszko for over 16 years knowing full well he was innocent. Did they loos their pension or were they prosecuted? No. All he got was an award hearing and sadly both he and his mothe died before they received a penny....

I clearly don't know what he was a 'pilot' of, but assuming something commercial, is getting him trained back to where he was (so he could at least look at going back in at a similar level to where he was), something which the BALPA could push? That is, part of his settlement should be the Home Office paying for his re-training.

It's scandalous that after coping with the months of false imprisonment (and presumably considerable pressure to "confess") and being cleared of all charges, that he's still blacklisted.

Is there really no airline with the gonads to cut through the paranoia and give the poor man a job?

:ugh:

Problem is, Ceedee, that whilst an airline might take him on, he might find himself trying to operate out of a country which won't let him mount his steed... :hmm:

I take your point completely.
But at least if that happened, he'd have something to challenge rather than being left hanging in no-mans' land.
Surely the first step is to get his licence current and for a company to demonstrate that he *is* actually trustworthy?

Who knows? After being disowned for so many years, maybe he's lost the passion...

I agree - he'll need to carry around the Home Sec's letter saying he's :ok: for quite a while.

No airline is going to take him on until he's got that as they don't want to run the commercial risk of having a plane-load of punters stuck in some hole at 03.00 because the F/O's been extraordinarily rendered. Hence they will only look at him once the Home Sec has been forced to sign the letter confirming he's off the hook.

Companies are there to make $$$/£££ for their shareholders, it's not their responsibility to 'demonstrate trust' if that can come back & bite 'em.

Good point -- well made!
:D

I'll draft a letter to my MP this evening.

I understand he was held for 5 months at US insistence, shouldn't Uncle Sam pick up all the bills?

The "evidence" was a work of fiction - a fantasy by the FBI - they never produced anything.

As for blacklisted ... I don't know but I imagine getting on the USA's no fly lists makes it tough to be a pilot.

I'm happy for the guy, must have been bad period of time for him :)

Since it was the govt. that gave him grief, the govt should hire him as a pilot, in addition to paying compensation.

GB

Interesting to see no flight deck crew have defended this poor guy.

Do I take it you still feel he is guilty? And if not would you fly with him as a F/O?

Forgive me if this is wrong but as the said fellow is Algerian, would it not be quite simple for him to return home (no doubt after we have paid for his training up to scratch again) and then work for his national airline? It would seem a most equitable solution and one that would get him back into the job he clearly loves. The level of compensation then could be agreed about the time spent in prison.
Is this too simple?

So as he is Algerian you want him to go 'home' ':hmm:

The silence is deafening.
Do I get the impression that no pilot on here would fly with him?

Give the guy a break.

Not at all YOP I was suggesting a way he may get back to flying soonest

censors out
 

ye old pilot/moderators
reason u see no flt deck crew defending guy is that lots of posts have beeen removed from this thread . no explanation too. anyone got the guts to give me one. there was
1 a post re the un equal us uk extraditon agreeement
2.a xenophbic post
3. my reply to #2
4 others too
anyone wanna explain/apologise :ugh:

Working Hard
 

Bah Humbug!!!

Stoic (flight deck retired)

The other posts were removed because they were nothing to do with the pilot concerned but rants about the failings of the US/UK/Iraq?Al Quaida or whatever. Subsequent replies to those posts were also removed.

Now stop being total Muppets and go and find the same thread over in Jet Blast without the posts removed. There you can join all the other Hamsters who have little else in their lives but to argue, ad nauseam, in never ending circles (Hamster Wheel) their pathetic points of view (as though they make one iota of difference) on the whole mess. :rolleyes:

If you want your comments to stay, then try and keep them related to Lofti Raissi and his career/desire to be an airline pilot. We can all read the judgement and can see that there has been a great injustice. We don't need the personal, in-depth reasoning, one way or the other, about why it happened. It did. He's been exonerated. He now needs to get on with his life.

Anyone else who fails to fathom that we are not going to spend out time on here, firefighting petty little flame wars amongst, xenophobes, academics, fantasists, glitterati or anyone who fails to comprehend the difference between this forum and the Jet Blast forum. :ugh:

Well said Danny!
 

Well said!

Stoic

Flight deck (747 Classic) retired

The paper version of "The Times" (UK newspaper) today 15th Feb was very interesting reading. It's not often the paper is _this_ critical of the legal system.

Highlights of the judges comments..

"...actions of the Metropolitan Police resulted in false statements to the court..."

"...extradition proceedings were brought for an ulterior motive..."

"...the CPS were responsible for serious defaults.."

The commentary in the paper says....

"...the Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Service and a parade of home secretaries have persisted with this awful fiction."

and, referring to the Prime Minister....

"...the right thing to do would be to apologise to Mr Raissi today - not in two or 20 years' time."

Algerian pilot
 

According to the BBC report

"Prosecutors sought to extradite him on two counts of falsifying an application for a US pilot's licence, saying these were "holding charges" while they investigated his alleged role in terrorism.

But after five months a district judge gave Mr Raissi conditional bail as no terrorism charges had been brought, and were not likely to be brought in the near future."

I have to say that the quicket way for him to get back flying would be for the US or UK to pay for his re-training costs and then recommend he flies for an Algerian of Middle East Airline where his problems would be of no consequence.

I am afraid this is the price many will have to pay as the consequence of Islamic terrorism. There are no winners - just losers.

Drivel
 

Danny this is drivel:

Please send it to the appropriate forum.

Regards

Stoic

With a bit of luck he'll sue the British Govt. for £millions and retire, buying a King Air or even better a boat..:), both have props, then chill for the rest of his life writing an autobiography along the way.

See.. I've got it all sorted out!

Mat Finish
never a shiny moment..:suspect:

Simple questions.
 

Who did this "airline pilot" fly for? When?

Simple question
 

Why does it matter? :confused:

His chances of pursuing his career as an airline pilot have been badly damaged. There'll always be types who say no smoke without fire and they wont let facts get in the way of their prejudices.

Who's Danny?
 

This is exactly the right forum to discuss the unfortunate episode of the Algerian pilot. The outcome must be for him to be able to pursue his career and the question then arises "How can that be achieved?"

I think he would be likely to have much greater chance of success in a country where his perceived "blemishes" - proved not true - would be ignored. That to my mind is a Muslim country.

You must remember that after the atrocious 9/11 many were suspected and many wrongly accused. We have all done that after a major tragedy.

See this to gather some of the sentiment prevailing at that time:

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_ho.../17113504.html

Obviously the sooner he can get back to his trade the better and that is most likely to occur with the airline of a Muslim country.

I feel that there is more to come on this one.

Reply to Royhudd/simple question.
 

I realy dont know what your talking about?

However if it helps

Iea, Rba, Tva, Air europe (Milan) 75s and 76s ,tng done at Brain crank.

Brain crank, along with an other Co in the East Midlands, taught non flying pilots some dressd in hijabs to fly Boeing Jets .

Aparently this practise earned quite a lot off money for these cash hungry
Airlines and subsidised their sims.

We bona fide airline pilots always got the lousy night time slots, the hijabs got the prime afternoon slots,thats got to be discrimanatory.

After 9/11 I told Sb Leics police who "Trolled through Brain cranks sim records and found "a virtual treasure trove of astonishingly valuable information"!

Time guess? I give you a clue.

He not only made a mess of painting the tails bad decision/He also made a mess of allowing the training of non flying hijabs to fly the sims ,another bad decision.
Third bad decision employing Qick fit fitters in the A/C maintanence dept.I quote a senior Licenced Eng who was working on our plane there is going to be an accident people are going to get killed I just hope I havent signed the plane out these people (quick fit fitters) are a menace thank goodness I retire in six months time.I am sorry we have wrecked your plane,it was a pleasure to work on a new B767,(EI-CLS), and not the rust buckets the we have ,eng was not a happy bunny.

Only funny thing that occurred in our enforced 48 hr stay at LHR,was an airbus winglet and approx half a metre of wing,lying on the hanger floor,and some wit had written in broad black felt tip AOG /SPARES.return to owner ,Yes the worlds favourite Airline had clipped another carriers airbus whilst taxying and had successfully amputated the winglet. AMA DINNA JACKET would have been proud of the "operation"

Toodle Pip
NOJH.

Mr Raissi has committed no offence anywhere on this planet.
I hope whatever compensation he gets (and deserves) he continues his ambition to be a commercial pilot.
Yet despite a clean bill of health there are some on here that suggest he works on a 'Muslim' airline or from a 'Muslim" country. How would you like to start defining what airline has what religious alliance. That would be very dangerous territory.
Some are saying ...you take the money and we never want to hear from you again. Put yourself in his shoes and imagine what he has been through.

Both of my parents were from the Irish Republic and I'm old enough to remember when that was a black mark for employment in certain sectors of society.

The day when this sort of political or religious thinking is an influence on flight crew will be a sad day for all decent people.

There's a moving interview with Mr Raissi in today's Observer that may help some folk to understand better what he's been through.

A couple of highlights for those too busy:-

Give the Guy a break.
 

Why ? no one gave me a break in my aviation carreer,why give him one!

Reply to Philspace ref the Algerian.
 

No offence anywhere on the planet:

How would you know that? to be sure to be sure, have you got a crystal ball,can you read cups and tell fortunes,maybe you read palms as well between sectors. Maybe you have your own private leprechaun. Youl be telling me next statues cry real tears ooch you havenae changed a bit still beleave in fairies and four leafed clovers? The blarney remains despite the euro,as a southern Irish A/c eng,said weve been dragged by the hair screaming and protesting into the 19th century.

No offence anywhere on the planet Ah wouldnae put a punt onit!

However if you are ever in Shannon in Dirty Nellies I will have beer with you ,and you can pay.

Where now for Mr Raissi?
 

CEEDEE. I admire your wish to defend this man's airline future but you have to live in the real world. Some will not be so generous spirited - and did I not hear that the Government are considering whether to appeal or not? Is it all over yet? Perhaps not.

Court of Appeal Judgment
 

the full judgment can be found here
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2008/72.html
Sad Sad reading and details a series of deceptions put forward on behalf of the US authorities by the CPS in various hearings.
The US Authorities simply wanted this man in US custody in the US for questioning and aided and abetted by the British might have succeeded on false and mistaken facts in having him extradited had it not been for the Judiciary in UK
Holding Charges take on a new meaning ....
Now HIs battle for compensation continues.

Hmmmm. Tricky question....
1) Because he's being arbitrarily prevented from pursuing his career through no fault of his own;
2) Because his personal life has been damn-near wrecked by the consequence of overbearing state power;
3) Because I hoped that fellow pilots, pilots' professional organisations, airlines and aviation licensing authorities might be able to offer support to help him return to some kind of normality.

Why should he get the break and not you?
1) Because he's been held in terrible conditions in a high-security prison for four months for no good reason and you haven't;
2) Because leaving a fellow pilot to 'work it out' on their own is small-minded and selfish (and why I among thousands wrote letters supporting the GOL pilots' quasi-judicial arrest in Brazil: just like him, they were unjustly accused and falsely detained, though admittedly in far more comfortable circumstances than Mr Raissi);
3) Because letting the fiasco roll on diminishes our country's reputation for fairness and respect for human rights?

Why should you support Mr Raissi?
Because it's about time you did something that would make your mother proud of you.
:*

I still think in all fairness he should be employed as a pilot for the British Govt., maybe the Royal fleet. Think about it..

GB

Pilot compensation ruling to be appealed
 

From The Independent, 28 February, 2008:

Ministry of Justice ?

Stoic

Reforms
 

Yes, another of our ancient, and internationally admired, institutions that has been "reformed" by this Administration. Perhaps "re-formed" would be a more appropriate expression.

Hardly - gov department organisation has little "history" as such - while the name existed since the 1700s, responsibilities are moved around very rapidly in our non-constitutional system - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Office.

Beside the point however. I hope the chap in question wins on principle of the arbitrary nature of the process in which he was caught up. Should teach one or two ministers about the rule of law, which can never be disregarded, even in extremis.

It's disgraceful and a scar on our 'justice' system.

This guy was locked up and his career destroyed, at the request of a foreign government and without a shred of evidence against him.

Our government should apologise and compensate him, and then demand a refund from the government who requested his detention.

PS. the fact that he was a pilot is irrelevant.