Being an American is about having the right to be who you are.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida (PRWEB) December 06, 2013
Morgan & Morgan is announcing it has filed a civil lawsuit* against the United States government on behalf of a Muslim American citizen who, according to court documents, alleges he was falsely arrested and then imprisoned for 319 days in solitary confinement after being charged with aiding the Pakistani Taliban.
“We believe we will prove the government acted unreasonably in this case,” said John Dill, an attorney in Morgan & Morgan’s Orlando office. “And under the law, even the government is accountable for its wrongdoing.”
Court records show Irfan Khan, a Muslim and naturalized American citizen who lives in Miami, Florida, was charged with “conspiracy to provide and providing material support to a conspiracy to murder, kidnap, or maim persons overseas,” as well as “conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization,” in May 2011. Specifically, court records continue, Khan’s indictment alleged he was sending money to his native Pakistan as “material support” for the “Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan” terrorist organization, more commonly known as the “Pakistani Taliban.”
According to court records, Khan, a married father of two with no prior criminal history, was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami after his arrest in California on May 14, 2011, where he remained in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) in solitary confinement while enduring “some of the worst conditions imaginable.”
“Being an American is about having the right to be who you are,” said Michael Hanna, a discrimination attorney in Morgan & Morgan’s Fort Lauderdale office. “We look forward to pursuing justice on behalf of Mr. Khan.”
The government’s initial complaint speaks to the extremely violent nature of the Pakistani Taliban and cites money wire transfers and “at least a thousand” recorded phone calls from Khan to family back home. However, according to Morgan & Morgan’s civil complaint, not once does the federal indictment allege Khan called for violence, nor that he made any financial transactions to a recognized foreign terrorist organization. In fact, the civil complaint continues, the Pakistani Taliban was not recognized as a foreign terrorist organization at the time of Khan’s wire transfers cited in the government’s lawsuit. On June 13, 2012, the federal government dropped all charges against Khan, court records show.
“The decision to take away someone’s liberties is a serious responsibility. We are seeing a troubling patter of overzealous prosecution when it comes to the Muslim community,” said Nezar Hamze, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Florida, the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group. “We look forward to a transparent proceeding to reveal the facts.”
For more information on John Dill, Michael Hanna, and the attorneys in Morgan & Morgan’s Fort Lauderdale office, please visit http://www.forthepeople.com.
About Morgan & Morgan
Morgan & Morgan is one of the largest exclusively plaintiffs’ law firms in the country with 15 offices throughout Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, and New York. The firm handles cases nationally involving personal injury, medical malpractice, consumer class action, and securities fraud, as well as complex litigation against drug and medical device manufacturers. Visit Morgan & Morgan online at http://www.forthepeople.com/ for a free case evaluation and information about your legal rights.
*Case No. 1:13-cv-24366-CMA in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division