there was a flight risk; it is not to be used as a preventive action. Ashcroft v. al-Kidd In 2009 the Ninth Circuit of Appeals in San Francisco, California. found in Ashcroft v. al-Kidd that former Attorney General John Ashcroft could be sued personally for wrongful detention by Abdullah al-Kidd, an American citizen who was arrested in 2003 and held for 16 days in maximum security prisons to be used as a material witness in the trial of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen. Al-Kidd was never charged or called as a witness. (Al-Hussayen was acquitted in 2004 of all charges of supporting terrorism.) The circuit court's decision was unanimously reversed in Ashcroft v. al-Kidd (2011) by the United States Supreme Court on May 31, 2011, affirming the immunity of government officials operating in their official positions. See also Brandon Mayfield Mike Hawash Detention of Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Jaweed Azmath References Evidence law United States federal criminal law