US Muslim says FBI played a role in his torture in UAE (VIDEO)
The FBI says it is keeping a closer watch on sovereign citizen extremists. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN
A Muslim American from Portland alleges he was detained in the United Arab Emirates last summer, tortured in custody and interrogated about the activities of a Portland mosque with the knowledge of US government officials, the Associated Press reported.
Yonas Fikre, who is seeking asylum in Sweden, told a Stockholm news conference Wednesday that he was held for 106 days in the United Arab Emirates, tortured and kept in solitary confinement.
Fikre said that his UAE interrogators, at first, denied they were working for the FBI but one interrogator later acknowledged the FBI had been involved in his questioning, the AP reported.
According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Fikre, alleges he was beaten on the soles of his feet, threatened and forced into "stress positions" by unidentified interrogators, The Oregonian reported.
The Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group has asked the Justice Department to open an investigation.
The 33-year-old US citizen from Eritrea, said attended the same mosque in Portland, Oregon as Mohamed Osman Mohamud.
Mohamud.is a Somali-American charged with plotting to detonate a bomb in downtown Portland in November 2010.
Fikre says he met Mohamud a few times but they were not acquaintances. Fikre moved to Sudan in 2009 and later to the UAE.
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