JURIST - Paper Chase: Two alleged CIA rendition victims join ACLU lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary

[JURIST] Two men who allege that the CIA detained and tortured them in foreign prisons Wednesday joined [ACLU press release] a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] against San Jose-based Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan [corporate websites]. Iraqi citizen Bisher al-Rawi alleges that in 2002 he was detained while on a business trip in Gambia and flown to Afghanistan, where he was interrogated and tortured in a US-run prison. Yemeni citizen Mohamed Farag Ahmad Bashmilah said that he was arrested in Jordan in 2003 while visiting his mother and then flown to Afghanistan by the CIA. Bashmilah said he was interrogated and tortured for six months at Bagram Air Base [GlobalSecurity backgrounder].

In May, the ACLU filed the lawsuit [press release; JURIST report] in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Jeppesen Dataplan knowingly supported direct flights to secret CIA prisons, facilitating the torture and mistreatment of US detainees. The ACLU alleges that Jeppesen played a key role in the extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] flights by providing a number of vital services including itinerary, route, weather, and fuel planning, as well as obtaining over-flight and landing permits from foreign governments. The ACLU was originally representing three men who were subjected to the CIA flights: Binyam Muhammad, currently being detained at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], Abou Elkassim Britel, currently in a Moroccan prison, and Ahmed Agiza, currently in an Egyptian prison. Al-Rawi was held at Guantanamo Bay for nearly five years before being released [JURIST report] to the United Kingdom, where he holds residency. Reuters has more.

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