http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/14/us-muslim-who-says-he-was-tortured-returns-to-port/?page=2
US Muslim who says he was tortured returns to Portland
By FEDOR ZARKHIN - Associated Press - Saturday, February 14, 2015
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Less than four hours after landing in the U.S., Yonas
Fikre was back in the mosque at the center of his five-year exile and
alleged torture at the FBI’s behest.
One after another, men came up to him, embracing him and shaking his hand.
They smiled and patted him on the back as they welcomed him home.
The warm reception surprised him, even though he hadn’t seen his Portland
friends since 2009. He’s been on the no-fly list for years and had been
looking at multiple charges, since dropped, in federal court.
“You always think, maybe they gave up on you,” Fikre, 36, said, sitting in
the library of Masjed As-Saber, Portland’s largest Sunni mosque.
The Eritrean-born U.S. citizen’s saga began in 2010 when, he claims, he was
approached by two FBI agents in Sudan. They pressured him to become an
informant on the mosque and told him he’d face repercussions if he refused,
he said.
Refuse he did. About a year later, the suit claims, secret police in United
Arab Emirates picked him up, holding him for 106 days. He was tortured,
made to sleep almost naked on a cold floor, beaten on the soles of his feet
and forced into stress positions, the lawsuit claims.
“It dehumanizes you,” he said. “It destroys you.”
The FBI was behind it, Fikre said his interrogator told him.
Fikre was released without charges and sought asylum in Sweden. Because he
was on the no-fly list, he was barred from returning to the U.S. on a
commercial flight.
Sweden rejected the request three years later, but chartered a private jet
to return him to the states, his attorney Thomas Nelson said.
His stay in Sweden turned out to be a blessing of sorts, giving him the
time and sense of safety to recuperate from his ordeal in the U.A.E., he
said.
“I feel like maybe I can live again,” he said.
On Friday, stretching his legs after more than 24 hours without sleep,
Fikre said he won’t seek asylum elsewhere. Portland is home, he said.
“I plan to lead a normal life, and I plan to get off the no-fly list.”
The no-fly list is a secret roster meant to keep suspected terrorists from
flying in or over the U.S. Civil liberties advocates have long protested
the difficulty in challenging one’s place on the list.
Fikre is suing the FBI, the National Security Agency and the federal
government, among others, for putting him on the no-fly list and for the
torture and other abuse he claims he suffered in U.A.E.
Nelson filed the most recent complaint in October, and he’s still waiting
for a response from the defendants. He’s seeking an injunction that would
remove Fikre from the list and at least $10 million in damages.
Portland FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele issued a statement saying that
the agency holds a fundamental core value that every person has the right
to live, work and worship in the U.S. without fear, and that FBI agents
take an oath to uphold those rights.
Despite having no plans to leave the country, Fikre said he’ll always have
some doubt about his safety in the U.S. He’ll always wonder whether the
torture’s over, he said.
What he does appear to have is the support of his mosque. Sheikh Mohamed
Kariye, himself a former FBI target, said he was happy to see Fikre safe at
home.
“All of us, we like to be in a safe place with our family,” he said.
And Fikre seemed confident that that’s exactly where he was.
“I’ll pull through,” Fikre said. “I’ve got a strong community.”
___
Information from: The Oregonian,
http://www.oregonlive.com
Received on Sat Feb 14 2015 - 17:27:02 EST