In his suit against Former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller III along with 25 other government officials and prison personnel Javaid Iqbal alleged he was mistreated in a federal prison and classified as a person of interest solely because of his race and religion.

The Court will determine whether there is sufficient evidence against Ashcroft and Mueller to merit trial in a lower court. If the justices render a decision favorable to Iqbal, the case would then return to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York for trial.

A second plaintiff in the case, Egypt-native Ehab Elmaghraby, settled with the federal government for $300,000 in 2006.

Iqbal, 40, installed cable television in Long Island, New York and was married to an American. He was arrested Nov. 5, 2001 following the attacks on the World Trade Center, and confined to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

The Muslim man, who was kept confined at MDC without charges until January 2003, alleged in his suit that he was cruelly subjected to numerous instances of excessive force and verbal abuse, unlawful strip and body cavity-searches, the denial of medical treatment and extended detention in solitary confinement. Iqbal alleged he was placed in a tiny cell for more than 23 hours a day, and strip-searched, manacled and shackled when removed from his cell.

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