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CNN Live At Daybreak

Abdallah Higazy is a Free Man

Aired January 18, 2002 - 06:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: An Egyptian student says he forgives the FBI for throwing him in jail on suspicion of terrorism. Abdallah Higazy was released Wednesday after being detained for a month. Authorities said he lied about an aviation radio found in his hotel room.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick explains what led to his freedom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Egyptian student Abdallah Higazy, out of jail a free man. Prosecutors dropping their charges.

ABDALLAH HIGAZY, FREED EGYPTIAN STUDENT: I'm happy I'm out. Nothing tops freedom!

FEYERICK: Higazy was accused of lying about a pilot's radio. The FBI said it was found in a hotel safe in Higazy's room, right across from the World Trade Center.

Now the government is backing down. Why? The radio, similar to this one, belongs to someone else -- a private pilot staying in the same hotel that day, one flight down from Higazy's 51st-floor room. In a letter to the judge, prosecutors write: "The owner of the aviation radio had no interaction with Mr. Higazy. It is still unclear, therefore, how the radio was on the 51st floor."

ROBERT DUNN, HIGAZY'S LAWYER: The integrity of the hotel was so compromised that anything could have happened. Even if it was in the safe, it didn't mean that he put it in there.

FEYERICK: Higazy was charged last week. An FBI agent describing the radio said it could be used on the ground to talk to pilots in the air. That raised suspicions Higazy, who used pilot radios in the military, may have helped guide the hijackers to their targets. Higazy was never charged with terrorism or having any ties to the September 11th attacks.

HIGAZY: The prosecutor told me there were five possibilities. Either I was -- the device was mine and I participated in September 11th, the device is mine and someone gave it to me as a favor, you know, and I didn't know that it actually was used in September 11th. It was mine and I was using it for something illegal... FEYERICK: Other possibilities? He knew nothing about the radio and was innocent. Higazy arrived in New York in August on a scholarship to study computer engineering. Polytechnic University put Higazy at the Millennium Hilton while he looked for permanent housing. Then came September 11th.

In December, when Higazy tried to claim his belongings from the wrecked hotel, Higazy was detained and held in custody for a month -- the U.S. government, refusing to believe he knew nothing about that radio.

The government released a statement saying, "We're continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the radio in Mr. Higazy's room.

(on camera): The question is, why did the hotel employee tell the FBI the pilot's radio was found in Higazy's safe, adding details that the radio was on Higazy's passport on top of the Koran. The government's investigating how that radio changed rooms.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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