By Alexandra Krauska
Rabat – An Emirati man received a formal apology from officials after he was detained and accused of being affiliated with ISIS, but he did not accept the apology, and is now seeking $200 million as compensation for physical, psychological and financial damages that resulted from the arrest.
Ahmed Al Menhali was wearing traditional Emirati clothing and speaking on the phone in Arabic at his hotel, Fairfield Inn and Suites in Avon, when a clerk called the police. She believed that he had sworn allegiance to ISIS.
Al Menhali insists that the incident was inspired by racism and hate rather than true suspicion. He was about to conduct a $70 million business deal with a pharmaceutical company, which was interrupted by the arrest, and suspects that the arrest was made to prevent him from making the deal.
When he was arrested, police allegedly told him to lay on the ground and then pinned him there. Al Menhali said that because he had a stroke in the past he had difficulty moving and complying to the police requests. According to him, the officers put excessive pressure on his back that caused injury and pain that still continues.
“They did not even stop to investigate or talk to me,” said Al Menhali. “I was not treated like a suspect, but I was a target. I felt like they attempted a murder even if it was a mistaken one.”
Al Menhali said that this was not the first time he had been mistaken for a threat due to his traditional dress, but that the officers had been polite in the past. He asks that the incident be investigated, in order to determine why the clerk called the police and why the police reacted so strongly.
