Suit targets DHS detentions

BROOKLYN, Nev., April 20 (UPI) -- A lawsuit filed Wednesday in Brooklyn says the Department of Homeland Security violated the rights of U.S. citizens returning from an Islamic conference.

The suit was announced by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations in simultaneous news conferences in Buffalo, N.Y., and Brooklyn.

The groups said the suit challenges DHS's policy of detaining, interrogating, fingerprinting and photographing U.S. citizens who are Muslim, solely because they attended an Islamic conference.

"None of the citizens who were detained had done anything unlawful, nor were they charged with any unlawful act," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The Muslims were on their way back from the "Reviving the Islamic Spirit" conference held in Toronto in December 2004.

The DHS's new policy resulted in the citizens being subjected to unlawful detention and treatment near Buffalo, the groups said.