A former Hawthorne resident says he was arrested for no reason in the United Arab Emirates, blindfolded, beaten, strapped to an electric chair and told that his wife would be raped if he didn't confess to vague charges of terrorism.
Now, Naji Hamdan and his brother, Hawthorne resident Hossem Hemden, want answers from the United States government, which they allege played a role in the 13-month ordeal.
"My life was turned upside down in a split second," Hamdan said in a phone interview Wednesday from his native Lebanon, where he has been living since his release in October 2009. "I just want to know why this happened to me."
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court seeking public records related to Hamdan's arrest, and the surveillance he and his brother say they were subjected to in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request in January, but was ignored by the government or told there were no records, attorneys said.
The civil rights group alleges the government arranged for Hamdan's arrest by using a foreign dictatorship to do its dirty work, said Jennie Pasquarella, an ACLU staff attorney.
A spokeswoman from the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, the primary agency involved in the alleged surveillance and conspiracy with the UAE, said the FBI does not generally divulge details of ongoing investigations.
