Tunisian Man Sues US Over ‘Inhumane Treatment’ After Acquittal on Terrorism Charges

A Tunisian former soccer player who was acquitted of terrorism-related charges last year is suing the U.S. government over “unlawful detention” and “inhumane treatment.”

Nizar Trabelsi, 54, was convicted of plotting a terrorist attack in Belgium in 2003 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was extradited to the U.S. from Belgium in 2013 to face further terrorism charges. Trabelsi spent nearly a decade in solitary confinement before being cleared by a federal jury in July 2023. Despite his acquittal, Trabelsi was immediately transferred to immigration detention, where he is reportedly being treated as an applicant for admission awaiting deportation.

The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenges the legality of that detention, citing violations of the U.S.-Belgium Extradition Treaty, U.S. immigration law, and the U.S. Constitution.

“We’re witnessing the disturbing aftermath of a failed terrorism prosecution, where the government seems intent on punishing our client by any means necessary,” said Brett Max Kaufman, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Center for Democracy.

The lawsuit says that Trabelsi’s continued detention is not only illegal but also poses severe risks to his physical and mental health due to the restrictive conditions he is subjected to.

According to the lawsuit, Trabelsi spends 23 hours a day in alone in a windowless cell at the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia. The document says his health has declined from conditions such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and diabetes.

The legal action has been filed against Jeffrey Crawford, warden of the Farmville Detention Center; Liana Castano, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency field office director for the Washington Field Office; Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

“Mr. Trabelsi’s inhumane treatment in immigration detention is just the latest in a long string of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s violations of both the law and its own policies,” said Sophia Gregg, senior immigrants’ rights attorney at ACLU of Virginia. “ICE must be held accountable, and Mr. Trabelsi must be afforded the right to return to Belgium as the law requires.”

Newsweek has contacted ICE and the Department of Justice for comment.

Trabelsi was initially arrested two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He relocated from Tunisia to Germany to be a professional soccer player, then settled in Belgium.

He testified at his trial in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia last year that he met with Osama bin Laden twice while living in Afghanistan. However, he has long maintained that his conviction in Belgium was based on a false confession he made under duress.

According to the European Court of Human Rights, Trabelsi’s extradition was illegal. The Belgian government has made two formal requests for Trabelsi’s return to Belgium, but the U.S. has declined to facilitate his repatriation. Instead, the U.S. government has indicated plans to deport him to Tunisia, where Trabelsi fears he could face torture, the lawsuit says.

“The government’s treatment of Mr. Trabelsi is a grave injustice and a clear violation of his constitutional rights,” said Nicole Hallett, clinical professor of law and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. “Our client’s ordeal has gone on way too long, and the court needs to step in.”

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