Witness to Abuse - Human Rights Watch

Abdallah Higazy
The government arrested Abdallah Higazy as a material witness in December 2001
because it believed it had evidence suggesting his involvement with the September 11
attacks. Higazy, an Egyptian graduate student, was in the United States on a grant from
the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to pursue graduate studies at
Brooklyn Polytechnic. 68 On the recommendation of USAID, during his orientation he
stayed in the Millennium Hotel in New York City, located near the World Trade Center.
He happened to be there on September 11, 2001, while waiting for his permanent
housing. Following the attacks and evacuation of the hotel, a hotel security guard
claimed (falsely it turned out) that he had found a pilot’s air-land radio in a safe in the
room where Higazy had stayed. The Justice Department had received reports that the
hijackers had received assistance from people in buildings close to the World Trade
Center. In light of the radio purportedly found in Higazy’s room, Justice Department
officials believed that Higazy might have sent transmissions to the hijackers who
attacked the World Trade Center or received transmissions from them. 69 In essence, the
government suspected Higazy was a terrorist conspirator, not a mere witness.
A month later the real owner of the radio, an airline pilot, came forward to claim his
radio from the hotel. It turned out the radio had been planted in Higazy’s room by a
hotel security guard who was inventorying items hotel guests left in the hotel after they
were evacuated on September 11; the guard found the transceiver in another room but
claimed to have found it with Higazy’s belongings. 70 After detaining Higazy in solitary
confinement for more than a month; obtaining a coerced, false confession from him in
an interrogation without counsel; 71 and criminally charging him with making false
statements to the FBI, the government released Higazy in January 2002, thirty-four days
after his arrest.
68
Before coming to the United States, he had worked for a company under contract for USAID for two years
and had been granted national security clearance. Donna Bryson, “Egyptian Student Found with Pilot Radio
Had Worked for U.S. Government Contractor,” Associated Press Wire, Jan. 12, 2002.
69
HRW/ACLU interview with Robert Dunn, attorney for material witness Abdallah Higazy, New York, New York,
May 18, 2004 (Interview with Robert Dunn, May 18, 2004).
70
On May 31, 2002, Ronald Ferry, the former hotel security guard who produced the pilot's radio was sentenced
to six months of weekends in prison for lying to the FBI. He admitted that he knew that the device was not in a
safe belonging to Higazy. Ferry, who is a former police officer, said that he lied during a "time of patriotism, and
I'm very, very sorry." The judge said that his conduct was "wrongly motivated by prejudicial stereotypes,
misguided patriotism or false heroism." “Presumption of Guilt,” p. 38-39. Higazy has since filed suit against
Ferry and the FBI, asserting in part that that the FBI agents failed to thoroughly investigate the tip, press Ferry
for a sworn statement, or subject him to a lie detector.
71
See Chapter VII, “Abusive Interrogations,” in this report for further information about Higazy’s false confession.
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