An airline pilot wrongly accused of training the September 11 hijackers is in line for a £2million Government payout, it emerged last night.
Lotfi Raissi, who is Algerian, was arrested by Scotland Yard ten days after the 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon after the FBI issued an arrest warrant.
He was held for months without charge in a high security prison before a court ruled there was no evidence against him and he should not be extradited to the U.S.
Yesterday he was finally told that he was formally exonerated and would receive compensation.
The 36-year-old from Chiswick, West London, said: 'I'm delighted. My life was destroyed, my career was destroyed.
'It was hell for me and for the last nine years. I was fighting for justice and what I want at the end of it is an apology.'
The FBI asked for his arrest because he was at a flight school in Arizona at the same time as Hani Hanjour, who piloted a hijacked Boeing 757 into the Pentagon.
Mr Raissi was 27 when he was arrested and has been unable to work since because of the 'devastating' effect it has had on his health.
As a qualified pilot, he could have expected a salary of up to £100,000 for the next 20 or 30 years.
His loss of earnings since 2001 is close to £1million alone, and he will receive even more for future lost earnings.
The total settlement is expected to be at least £2million.
Moment that shook the world: The second plane hits New York's Twin Towers
Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced that the Government would pay compensation on the final day before a court-ordered deadline was due to pass.
Last month the Court of Appeal gave Mr Straw 28 days to agree in principle to compensation.
A senior lawyer, Lord Brennan QC, will decide the exact amount.
After his arrest Mr Raissi spent four and a half months in Belmarsh high security prison, confined to his cell in the maximum security wing for 23 hours a day.
Decision: Justice Secretary Jack Straw
It was only when the Crown Prosecution Service was unable to present any evidence against him, or tell the court when he would be charged or extradited, that a judge ordered his release.
In 2004 he applied for compensation under a scheme covering miscarriages of justice, but Government lawyers argued his case fell outside the rules.
He challenged that decision and lost in the High Court, but in 2008 the Court of Appeal ruled in his favour.
Lord Justice Hooper said the public labelling of him as a terrorist had a 'devastating effect on his life and on his health'.
The ruling-made clear that there was a 'considerable body of evidence' to suggest that the police and the CPS were responsible for 'serious defaults' in handling the case.
Mr Raissi's solicitor, Jules Carey, accused Mr Straw of delaying the announcement because it was 'politically difficult'.
He said: 'Mr Raissi has fought extremely hard to clear his name. The allegations of terrorism were utterly ruinous to him both personally and professionally.
'I sincerely hope that this announcement will mark a new chapter in his life and that his rehabilitation will begin.'
James Welch, legal director of human rights charity Liberty, said: 'The shabby treatment of this innocent man is a chilling reminder of why we all need the protection of the courts.
'Now the Extradition Act 2003 is in force, it is terrifying to think that, were Lotfi Raissi to face the same false accusation today, he would be packed off to the U.S. without any consideration by our courts of the strength of the case against him.'
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