A Saudi family, which claims that one of its members was "abducted" by United States intelligence forces in Pakistan, has decided to sue the United States for its actions, the Saudi Arab News daily cited an Arabic newspaper report from Tuesday.
The family claims they lost track of 39 year-old Abdullah Al-Matrafi, director of WAFA charity, on December 10 after he phoned them from Lahore airport in Pakistan, minutes before he was due to board an Emirates flight to Jeddah via Dubai.
WAFA appeared on a U.S. list of organizations suspected of funding terrorism in October, but its director completely denied the allegations on the Qatari based Al-Jazeera television, Abdullah’s brother Muhammad told Al-Hayat daily.
Abdullah had been in Afghanistan during the US-led war. The charity’s stores were targeted by U.S. bombings, in which several of its aid workers were killed, including four Saudis, Muhammad conveyed.
Lahore airport authorities as well as the airline told the concerned relatives that, according to their records, Abdullah had boarded the Emirates flights at Lahore for Dubai, and at Dubai for Jeddah, but, apparently, he had never arrived there.
Muhammad said he had been told by various sources, that the Americans had arrested his brother.
After leaving Kabul due to U.S. air attacks, Abdullah was seriously wounded in one of the bombings. Abdullah’s father said his son, a father of three, spent most of his life in charity work and was never involved at all in politics. Two years ago he arrived in Afghanistan, where he had founded WAFA.
Muhammad said he had already contacted a Saudi lawyer and was planning to sue the U.S. State Department for including WAFA in the terrorist list without evidence, and the U.S. government for "kidnapping" his brother. He also plans to sue Dubai-based Emirates.
The Emirates airline denied charges that Abdullah was "abducted". "Our records show that Abdullah Al-Matrafi did not board the Emirates flight from Lahore to Dubai," declared Hatem Omar, the airline’s public relations officer. However, Muhammad Al-Matrafi insisted that he had proof that Abdullah was on Emirates Flight 675 from Lahore to Dubai. (Albawaba.com)
