Local News in Brief : FBI Is Sued by Couple
A Canoga Park couple acquitted on charges that they attempted to sell anti-tank missiles to Iran has filed suit against the FBI alleging that they were the victims of false arrest and malicious prosecution.
Sanai Farhin, 53, an Iranian immigrant, and Fadel Norman Fadel, a native of Lebanon, said in their $40-million federal lawsuit that they agreed to go along with the sales plan when a government informant who brought them into the deal told them he worked for the CIA.
When the couple learned that the transaction was not backed by the government, the informant and another man threatened their lives if they backed out of the deal, said their attorney, Michael Artan.
Farhin and Fadel were among seven people tried in the case in Florida in 1985. All but two were acquitted.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey Modisett, who handled the couple’s arraignment in Los Angeles, along with a related prosecution, said a magistrate found there was probable cause to try the couple on the charges.
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