APNewsBreak: Judge says US wrongly held Idaho man

Source: Associated Press

AP foreign, Wednesday June 27 2012

REBECCA BOONE

Associated Press= BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal magistrate says the United States falsely imprisoned a former Idaho man under a law designed to ensure that key witnesses show up for trial, and a jury should decide if the government has misused that law in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The ruling from U.S. Magistrate Mikel Williams in Boise still must be signed by U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge before it may go into effect, and it's possible that attorneys with the Department of Justice will appeal, ask Lodge not to sign or simply reach a settlement with Abdullah al-Kidd.

The Wichita, Kansas resident and former University of Idaho football star sued the government in 2003 after he was arrested and held as a material witness in a terrorism-related criminal case against another man.

"This case marks the first ruling against the government on the merits in a post 9-11 material witness case," al-Kidd's attorney, Lee Gelernt with the ACLU, said Wednesday. "The stakes are now very high because a jury will be asked to decide if the government engaged in preventative detention — a practice that Congress has never authorized in the history of this country."

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