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NEWS -
NEWS
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DETROIT (AP) - A Moroccan immigrant whose terrorism-related conviction was tossed out as a result of alleged wrongdoing by a former assistant U.S. attorney has filed a $9 million (¤6.57 million) federal lawsuit against the prosecutor and two other men.
Karim Koubriti, 28, who was held for three years, is alleging violation of his federal civil rights as a result of malicious prosecution by Richard Convertino.
For two years, Convertino led the government's case in the first major U.S. terrorism trial after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was removed in 2003 after the Justice Department concluded that he withheld evidence that could have proved the innocence of the four defendants accused of comprising a Detroit terror cell.
Convictions of three of the four men later were overturned because of prosecutorial misconduct. The fourth had been acquitted.
Convertino was indicted in March 2006, accused of conspiring to obstruct justice and lying to a federal judge in connection with the Detroit terror trial.
Also named as defendants in Koubriti's lawsuit _ which was filed Thursday _ are Harry Smith, a former U.S. State Department security officer, who was indicted along with Convertino, and Michael Thomas, the lead FBI agent on the terrorism case, who was not charged.
Convertino and Smith have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial in U.S. District Court.
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