Denver: A Saudi national who was denied a request to serve out the remainder of a Colorado prison sentence in his home country is suing prosecutors and FBI agents for defamation.
In a federal lawsuit filed Friday, Humaidan Al Turki says the officials claimed he had terrorist ties and mischaracterised his crimes in order to derail his transfer.
Then-prisons director Tom Clements initially approved Al Turki’s transfer, but Clements reversed his decision in March 2013, one week before he was killed at his home in Monument 80km south of Denver.
The lawsuit says Clements changed his mind because the officials said Al Turki was a national security threat with ties to US-born radical cleric Anwar Al Awlaki. Al Turki owned a company that some years ago sold CDs of sermons recorded by Al Awlaki, but the lawsuit says he had no ties to him by the time Al Awlaki became a radicalised Islamist militant.
Al Turki’s lawsuit says the officials then falsely leaked the theory that he had a role in Clements’ killing.
Authorities have since said that former Colorado prisoner and gang member Evan Ebel was responsible for the deaths of Clements and Nathan Leon, who was working a second job delivering pizzas to support his family.
Al Turki is serving an eight-years-to-life sentence in Beaumont, Texas, after being convicted in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft, extortion and other crimes. Prosecutors said he sexually abused his Indonesian housekeeper and kept her as a virtual slave.
He denied the allegations, saying he was a victim of anti-Muslim sentiment.
His latest lawsuit seeks a “name-clearing hearing” by a neutral judge and other penalties.
