Christians Under Attack

immediately after 9/11 - ruling that authorities were well within their rights to hold illegal immigrants as they investigated the terror attacks.

"After the September 11 attacks, our government used all available law-enforcement tools to ferret out the persons responsible for those atrocities and to prevent additional acts of terrorism," Judge John Gleeson wrote in a 99-page decision made public yesterday.

"We should expect nothing less," the judge said.

Gleeson tossed out portions of a class-action lawsuit originally filed in 2002 against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI head Robert Mueller, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the warden of Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center and numerous prison guards.

The decision dismisses the claims of illegal detention, but allows the suit's allegations of prison abuse to go forward.

The detainees, who were all picked up for minor immigration violations such as expired visas, were sent to the Brooklyn lockup and the Passaic County, N.J., jail as persons "of high interest" to the 9/11 investigation.

The group, consisting of seven Muslim men and one Hindu man, claim they were subjected to verbal and physical abuse in the prisons and were kept from communicating with their lawyers and being allowed to properly conduct prayer services.

One of the alleged victims, Egyptian native Yasser Ebrahim was arrested in Brooklyn on Sept. 30, 2001, by Immigration officials for his suspected ties to 9/11 and claims his nose was broken by prison guards and was called a "f- - -ing Muslim" and a "terrorist."

Ebrahim, who was on 23-hour-a-day lockdown, was cleared of terrorist charges in December 2001. But he remained in solitary confinement until finally being released and deported to Egypt six months later.

"I am very disappointed and shocked," Ebrahim said in response to Gleeson's ruling. "I can't believe the court would allow this to happen. I am frightened for other Muslims in the United States, who could face the same discrimination and abuse that I suffered."

Rachel Meeropol, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who represent the eight men, called the judge's decision "profoundly disturbing, because it legitimizes the fact that the Bush administration rounded up and imprisoned our clients because of their religion and race."

"This ruling gives a green light to racial profiling."

Gleeson - the lead prosecutor in the 1992 racketeering and murder trial that put mob boss John Gotti away for life - said "the government was allowed" to make the immigration roundups.

Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller said: "The department is very pleased that the court upheld the decision to detain plaintiffs, all of whom were illegal aliens, until national security investigations were completed and plaintiffs were removed from the country."

A spokesman for the group suing the government said it would appeal Gleeson's ruling.

zach.haberman@nypost.com