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Yonas Fikre (left) a Muslim American from Portland, talks to media with his attorney, Thomas Nelson, in Stockholm, Sweden.
(The Associated Press/File)
A federal judge has dismissed several claims against the FBI, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and others in a lawsuit challenging the no-fly list but is giving the plaintiff until June 27 to rewrite his complaint.
Thursday's opinion and order from U.S. District Judge Anna Brown formalizes statements she made during a hearing last March in the case filed by Yonas Fikre.
Fikre, who lived in Portland before going overseas on a business venture, is suing the FBI and others, saying the agency orchestrated his 106-day detention and torture in 2011 in the United Arab Emirates after he refused to act as an informant for them.
He also is challenging the constitutionality of the no-fly list, a secret roster kept by the government of those barred from flying in or over the United States because of alleged terrorism connections. Those placed on the list are not told of their status and are not permitted to hear the reasons or evidence behind the government's suspicions.
Read Judge Brown's opinion and order.
Fikre's lawsuit is one of three making their way through federal court in Portland. Another was filed on behalf of Tigard resident Jamal Tarhuni and another case challenges the list's constitutionality on behalf of more than a dozen plaintiffs, including the imam of Oregon's largest mosque.
Brown dismissed one of Fikre's claims outright – that the government stripped him of his rights as a citizen by refusing to allow him to return to the United States. Brown said the citizenship clause involves an individual's status as a citizen, but is not the basis for protecting a citizen's rights.
Brown is allowing Fikre to amend other claims, including allegations that placement on the no-fly list violates due process. Currently, the claims lack sufficient information to be considered, the judge said.
Fikre has been in Sweden since being released from the UAE in September 2011.
-- Helen Jung