Birmingham News Washington correspondent Mary Orndorff reports. Excerpt:
ALEXANDRIA, Va. The former Birmingham cab driver arrested the night of the terrorist attacks passed an FBI polygraph test and will not be charged with any crime related to the plot, his lawyer said Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia declined to comment on the status of the case against Khalid Suleiman-Aldiribi, who lived in North Birmingham until less than a year ago. Last week, the FBI listed him as one of 21 people whose financial records should be flagged by banking institutions; 19 of those names belonged to the dead hijackers on the four planes.
Suleiman-Aldiribi, a 32-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia, will remain in federal custody for lying to authorities late on the night of Sept. 11 by telling them he was an American citizen.
But when he told the FBI polygraph examiner that he was not involved in the suicidal skyjackings and knew of no plans to attack the United States, he was deemed truthful, his attorney, Drewry Hutcheson Jr., said Tuesday.
“It is my hope that the suspicion is being lifted,” Hutcheson said.
The attorney said federal prosecutors notified him Tuesday morning that Suleiman-Aldiribi would be charged with only an immigration-related felony. Hutcheson said he recommended the polygraph test Friday and the FBI arranged it for Saturday. “We went in with no deals,” he said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia said their office would not comment at this time.