‘Terror suspect' pilot tells of ordeal
Lotfi Raissi, the Algerian pilot freed on bail earlier this week after five months on remand accused of involvement in the September 11 attacks, has spoken of his ordeal, it was reported today.
Mr Raissi, 27, was released on Tuesday after a district judge decided that the US government had failed to provide promised evidence that he was involved in the attacks.
He had been held on ‘‘holding charges’’ of falsifying an application for a US pilot’s licence and must return to court later for further hearings in his extradition case.
Mr Raissi told The Daily Telegraph: ‘‘I am shocked, still shocked psychologically, that they could connect me to that atrocity when I am innocent.
‘‘I was a pawn on the chess board and I had no idea what was going on around me.’’
Mr Raissi said his faith in British justice was vindicated, despite his feeling that he was treated
"very, very badly’’ while on remand in Belmarsh prison, south east London.
‘‘I didn’t doubt British justice for a second,’’ he told the paper.
On Tuesday, District Judge Timothy Workman at Belmarsh Magistrates Court said that he could have conditional bail as he was only facing extradition to the US on two counts of falsifying an application for a US pilot’s licence.
He allegedly hid a 1993 theft conviction and failed to mention that he had undergone a knee operation.
Prosecutors acting for the US have always insisted that these were ‘‘holding charges’’ while they investigate Raissi’s alleged role in terrorism.
At previous court hearings they indicated he was suspected of being a ‘‘lead instructor’’ for pilots responsible for the September 11 hijackings.
In particular, they claim he was linked to Hani Hanjour, the pilot suspected of crashing Flight 77 into the Pentagon.
Although no terrorism charges have yet been brought against him, US officials said on Tuesday that he is still being investigated as a September 11 suspect.
A US Embassy spokesman in London said: ‘‘He remains the subject of a continuing terrorist investigation.’’
