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 Lawyers for Wesam El-Hanafi, 40, and the U.S. government made
their closing arguments on Friday in a week-long medical malpractice
trial over whether the prison system failed to timely diagnose and
treat a blood clot in a deep vein in his calf.
El-Hanafi, a Brooklyn-born man who U.S. prosecutors say facilitated
surveillance of the New York Stock Exchange, contends his symptoms
began shortly after his arrest in Dubai in 2010.
In a lawsuit filed in 2013, El-Hanafi said after his arrest, police
in Abu Dhabi shackled his feet during his detention, and that on a
16-hour flight to Washington his leg use was discouraged.
His lawyer, Jake Harper, said after departing the airplane,
El-Hanafi began experiencing pain in his right calf, initial
symptoms of a blood clot condition called deep vein thrombosis.
"We had consistent complaints about pain by Mr. El-Hanafi since that
date," he told U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods, who presided over
the non-jury trial.
 Despite that, Harper said El-Hanafi's condition went undiagnosed
until being treated at a New York hospital in September and October
2011, when ultrasounds were taken.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Byars argued those same
ultrasounds along with later ones showed the condition was in early
stages at that time.
He called El-Hanafi's condition hereditary and said it "was most
likely not preventable, no matter how early it was caught."
"There was no violation of the standard of care," he said.
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El-Hanafi, who is seeking $7 million in damages, pleaded guilty in
2010 to charges including that he provided material support to
terrorists and was sentenced in January 2015 to 15 years in prison.
He worked as an information technology employee for Lehman Brothers
at the bank's Dubai offices until his arrest
Prosecutors said El-Hanafi traveled to Yemen in 2008 and swore an
allegiance to al Qaeda.
He then used his expertise to help advise al Qaeda contacts how to
avoid detection while communicating online, and also sent money and
equipment to al Qaeda contacts, prosecutors said.
At the direction of Yemen-based contacts, El-Hanafi also assigned an
associate to perform surveillance of U.S. locations, including the
New York Stock Exchange, as potential attack targets, prosecutors
said.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Tom Brown)
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