Pair seek damages over 9/11 arrests

Sonia Raissi, whose Algerian husband Lotfi was the first person accused of participating in the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, and Mohamed Raissi, are each seeking damages in excess of £150,000 in their High Court action against the Metropolitan Police.

Mrs Raissi, of Chiswick, west London, and her brother-in-law, of Heston, Hounslow, say their arrests by anti-terrorist police on September 21, 2001, were "unlawful" and that they were falsely imprisoned.

Lotfi Raissi was arrested 10 days after September 11 following an extradition request from the United States. He and his wife were living at Colnbrook, Berkshire, at the time. He was eventually released in February 2002 and a judge ruled that there was "no evidence" to suggest that he was connected to 9/11 or any form of terrorism.

Mr Justice McCombe, sitting in London, is being asked to rule on the issue of liability in the case brought by Mrs Raissi and Mohamed Raissi, which is being contested by the police.

French-born Mrs Raissi, a dancer who was working at Heathrow as a customer service agent for Air France at the time of her arrest, was released without charge after five days. Mohamed Raissi was detained for around 42 hours and also released without charge after being arrested at the home he shared with his wife in Hounslow. He had been due to start a new job as a cleaning supervisor at Heathrow airport on the morning he was arrested but the offer was withdrawn,

Lotfi Raissi, now aged 33, who spent nearly five months in jail following the false allegations, has an appeal pending against a ruling earlier this year that the Home Secretary was entitled to exclude him from a Home Office ex gratia compensation scheme for victims of miscarriages of justice.

Two High Court judges ruled that Raissi had been held in extradition proceedings which were not "in the domestic criminal process" and therefore did not fall within the compensation scheme.

Mr Raissi has described the four-and-a-half months he spent wrongly held at top security Belmarsh prison as having "ruined" his life, damaged his reputation, lost him his career and caused him distress and psychiatric injury.

His 35-year-old brother and his wife, now aged 31, are claiming damages arising out of their arrests and subsequent detention on September 21. Their claim is that as a result of what happened to them they suffered "loss of liberty, humiliation, personal injury and loss and damage".