RIYADH, Jan 20: A Saudi businessman who was designated a terrorist by the United States after the Sept 11 attacks has sued the US Treasury to remove the label and access frozen assets, his lawyers said on Tuesday.

Lawyers for Yasin Kadi (spelled Qadi in US documents) said they had filed a suit in the Washington DC district court on Friday charging the US with violating the constitution in keeping Kadi’s name on a list as a “specially designated global terrorist” without providing proof.

The suit, filed against Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the US Treasury Department, and the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, seeks to remove the designation and restore Kadi’s reputation, Cameron Doley of London-based solicitors Carter-Ruck said.

“Notwithstanding the passage of more than seven years, neither the United States nor any other country in the world has brought criminal charges of any kind against Mr Kadi,” Doley’s office said in a written statement.

Kadi, 53, was listed as a ‘terrorist’ on Oct 12, 2001, under an order from President George W. Bush because Washington believed he was a financier of Al Qaeda.—AFP