F.B.I. Faces Inquiry on a False Confession From an Egyptian Student
A federal judge in Manhattan took the unusual step yesterday of ordering federal prosecutors to investigate how the F.B.I. had obtained a confession from an innocent Egyptian student who was detained in connection with the attack on the World Trade Center.

The judge, Jed S. Rakoff of Federal District Court, also agreed to unseal virtually all documents that have been kept secret in the case of the student, Abdallah Higazy. He was initially held as a material witness in the Sept. 11 investigation after a security guard said he had found an aviation radio in the safe in Mr. Higazy's hotel room, which overlooked the trade center site.

Mr. Higazy was later charged with perjury when he denied owning the radio, and spent about a month in jail. He was released after the guard admitted making up the story about the radio.

But while Mr. Higazy was in jail, prosecutors told Judge Rakoff that the student had confessed to an F.B.I. agent that he owned the radio, an admission now known to be untrue.

Mr. Higazy asked for a polygraph exam to prove his innocence, the judge said, and an F.B.I. agent administered it without his lawyer present. But at some point, the F.B.I. agent, who has not been identified, stopped, and reportedly began to question Mr. Higazy, who then confessed, the judge noted. The confession fueled suspicions he might be tied to the hijackers.

"The alleged misbehavior here," Judge Rakoff said, "consists, worst case, of an F.B.I. agent's taking unfair advantage of a situation created during a polygraph testing expressly requested by the witness to obtain from the witness a coerced or uncounseled confession that could be used to bring criminal charges against the witness."

Although Mr. Higazy made no claims of physical abuse, he said recently that after he was left alone for several hours with the agent, he started hyperventilating and was ready to say anything. Mr. Higazy also said the agent had threatened his family's safety if he did not confess, the judge noted, adding that the government denied that allegation.

The judge said that he believed prosecutors had put forward the information about the confession without realizing it was false, but that there were still questions about the agent's actions in the session, last Dec. 27.

Prosecutors had begun an investigation, he noted, but stopped pending his decision on whether the court would conduct its own inquiry. He ordered prosecutors to report back by Oct. 31, at which point he will decide whether to release the findings.

He also gave the government until Friday to object to the release of any portions of documents that he feels should now be made public. The judge said that "the determination to jail a person pending his appearance before a grand jury is presumptively public, for no free society can long tolerate secret arrests." The New York Times and Mr. Higazy's lawyer had both asked the judge to unseal the file pertaining to the case.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/06/nyregion/06CONF.html