Serdar Tatar, one of five foreign-born Muslim men who were convicted of a terrorist plot to attack Fort Dix, has filed a federal lawsuit claiming his civil rights have been violated at the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia. He filed the amended complaint Tuesday in U.S. District Court and seeks damages. Warden Troy Levi and other administrators and staff at the detention center are named as defendants. Tatar is serving a 33 years at a federal penitentiary in Tucson for his role in the Fort Dix terror plot. He and his four co-defendants have appealed their convictions and sentences.
In his complaint, Tatar alleges he was treated unfairly while being held at the Philadelphia center. He claims he was "malnourished," and lost more than 40 pounds and suffered "mental anguish and pain" from his hunger.
This malnutrition gambit came up previously during their trial when one of the co-defendants, speaking on behalf of the group, asked the judge if they could get more food for lunch because they were so famished that they could not focus on the trial testimony.
Tatar, in his amended complaint, says detention center staff did not protect him after he reported a "very heated" verbal altercation with his cellmate co-defendant Dritan Duka in February 2008. Tatar alleges that Duka threatened harm, but that prison staff left the two together in their cell for 23 hours a day. He claims Duka attacked and wounded him a month later.
The complaint also alleges Tatar was forced to strip naked twice in front of a video camera for no reason, causing him emotional distress.