Mustafa Çağlayan
November 24, 2015•Update: November 25, 2015
NEW YORK
The family of Ahmed Mohamed, the U.S. Muslim boy who was arrested in September after a teacher mistook his homemade clock for a bomb, is demanding $15 million in damages and apologies from several officials, local media said Monday.
In two letters sent to Irving, Texas, city officials, lawyers representing Ahmed's family said that the teen's civil rights were breached by the way his case was handled.
He suffered severe psychological trauma and his "reputation in the global community is permanently scarred", said one of the letters, according to the Dallas Morning News.
The letters demanded $10 million from the city and $5 million from Irving Independent School District in compensation for "damages", and asked for written apologies from Mayor Beth Van Duyne and Police Chief Larry Boyd, the newspaper said.
The lawyers set a deadline of 60 days for the city to either comply with the demands or face "civil action".
"As American citizens, all of us -- even the ones with 'Muslim-sounding' names like Ahmed Mohamed -- are entitled to have public officials with whom we come in contact to respect our rights," said one of the letters.
The young Sudanese-American made international headlines when he was handcuffed, arrested and fingerprinted by police on Sept. 16 after a homemade clock he took to MacArthur High School was mistaken for a bomb.
His arrest was widely criticized with accusations that he was targeted because he is Muslim.
Ahmed received messages of support from a number of high-profile figures including Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whom he met in New York in late September, and U.S. President Barack Obama, whom he visited at the White House in mid-October.
The 14-year-old and his family recently moved to Qatar after accepting a scholarship from a foundation run by the gulf state.
