The federal government has agreed to pay an Oregon lawyer $2 million to settle part of a lawsuit he filed after the FBI misidentified a fingerprint and wrongly arrested him in the 2004 Madrid terrorist bombings.
"The pain and torture and humiliation that this (case) has caused my family is hard to put into words," Brandon Mayfield said after the settlement was announced Wednesday.
Mayfield was arrested in May 2004 on the basis of a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators in Madrid that was mistakenly matched to him after the March 11, 2004, train bombings that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,500. Mayfield was jailed on a material witness warrant but was released after the FBI acknowledged the fingerprint was not his.
Mayfield, who was detained for two weeks, and his wife, Mona, maintained that he was arrested because of his Muslim faith.
"We are Muslims. We are American. We are patriotic," Mona Mayfield said. "We are unhappy with the current administration stripping away our rights." Read on...
By Nicole Belle
— November 29, 2006
