NEW YORK, Nov 8: In a victory for Washington’s anti-terrorism arrest tactics, a US appeals court ruled on Friday that a Jordanian student could be held as a material witness in a grand jury Sept. 11 investigation.

The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a trial judge’s finding that the government had wrongly used the material witness statute to hold the student, Osama Awadallah, whom prosecutors later said lied when he denied knowing one of the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers.

The case has drawn wide attention because it questioned whether the US government is acting legally when it jails indefinitely people who are not charged with a crime but might be called to testify before a grand jury investigating terrorist activities.

James Comey, Manhattan US attorney, said that the opinion “goes along way to reassure the American people that we are using the laws as they are intended.”

“It vindicates the government’s use of the material witness statute in criminal investigations, one of the most important tools in our September 11th investigation and many others.”—Reuters