POLICE FINALLY RELEASE MAN ARRESTED ONE DAY AFTER SEPT. 11TH ATTACKS; CRITICS CITE VIOLATION OF HUMAN AND LEGAL RIGHTS--AP/KNM--10--11-03:

BUFFALO, N.Y.---Federal authorities have dropped their criminal prosecution of an Algerian man who has been held since a day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

U.S. Attorney Michael Battle said Friday he dropped two criminal charges against Benamar Benatta, 28, a former technician with the Algerian air force who was arrested by Canadian authorities at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls on Sept. 5, 2001. Magistrate Judge Kenneth Schroeder Jr. said last month the government failed to observe the Speedy Trial Act, and criticized officials for keeping Benatta in a high-security Brooklyn jail for terrorism suspects even after the FBI cleared him of involvement with terrorist activities.

In November 2001, FBI agents concluded that Benatta had no ties to terrorism, but authorities continued to hold him in the Brooklyn facility for another five months. He was transferred to the federal detention center in Batavia in April 2002, where he is still being held. Benatta faces noncriminal immigration charges that could result in deportation.

The U.S. Justice Department's inspector general in June issued a report citing mistreatment of some of the hundreds of foreigners detained after the 2001 terror attacks. Last month Justice Department inspectors said the government was not moving quickly enough to address the problems. Battle said he made his decision after examining Schroeder's ruling and the facts surrounding Benatta's case.

``After consideration of (Schroeder's) ruling, we've decided the appropriate action is to drop the charges,'' Battle told The Buffalo News. Benatta and other members of the Algerian air force had participated in an aviation training program in the United States. After the training ended, Benatta overstayed his visa and was arrested when he tried to go to Canada to request political asylum.

The two felony charges filed against Benatta said he was carrying two pieces of false identification when he was arrested by Canadian customs officers. If convicted of those two charges, court officials said, he probably would have faced, at most, a few months in prison.

``Dropping the charges against this man is long overdue,'' said John A. Curr III, assistant regional director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. ``It shouldn't have taken more than two years. It shouldn't take a ruling from a federal magistrate to make our government do the right thing.''