Talks don’t settle detainment case

BOISE – Court-ordered lawsuit settlement talks between a man who was detained in a federal case and the government were to no avail, attorneys on both sides told U.S. District Court Judge Mikel Williams.

The notice issued this week means that the lawsuit brought by Abdullah al-Kidd against the United States, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and several other officials will likely go to trial.

Al-Kidd filed the lawsuit in 2005, claiming his civil rights were violated when the government improperly used material witness laws to detain him for two weeks. Last month, Williams ordered the attorneys involved in the case to take part in settlement talks after both sides indicated “that a settlement conference would be beneficial.”

A trial date has not yet been set.

The case began in 2003 when al-Kidd, a former University of Idaho student who played football for the Vandals under the name Lavoni Kidd, filed the lawsuit after he was arrested in 2003 as a material witness in the government’s case against a fellow student, Sami Omar Al-Hussayen.

Both men worked on behalf of the Islamic Assembly of North America, a Michigan-based charitable organization that federal investigators alleged funneled money to activities supporting terrorism and published material advocating suicide attacks on the United States.

A jury acquitted Al-Hussayen of using his computer skills to foster terrorism and of three immigration violations after an eight-week federal trial. But Al-Hussayen was eventually deported to Saudi Arabia.

Al-Kidd was never called to testify, but he spent two weeks in jail as a material witness and was later released to the custody of his wife with strict limitations on where he could travel. He sued, alleging that he was falsely imprisoned and that the government violated due process, using material witness laws to arrest, detain and investigate individuals without first proving probable cause.

A material witness is considered to be someone who can give testimony no one else can give. In an important criminal case, such a person may sometimes be held by the government against his will to ensure the person’s availability for testimony.

Al-Kidd said the investigation and detention not only caused him to lose a scholarship to study in Saudi Arabia, but cost him employment opportunities.

He seeks unspecified damages.

The United States has maintained that it did nothing wrong in detaining al-Kidd.