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Muslim Group Calls For Investigation Into Family's Arrest At Wichita Bank

Wikipedia

A Muslim civil liberties group is calling for an independent investigation into events that led to the arrest of a Muslim family at a Wichita bank earlier this month.

The Kansas chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, says it wants an explanation why an Iraqi-American man was detained, along with his wife and teenage daughter, after trying to deposit a check for $151,000.

Bank staff suspected the check was fraudulent; Wichita Police determined it was valid before releasing the family. Both say they were following procedure.

CAIR says statements released by Emprise Bank and the WPD conflict each other. Spokesman Moussa Elbayoumy says CAIR wants an investigation into both the bank and the police department.

"We need an explanation why, specifically, did this happen, and what kind of procedure and policy they're talking about that led them to do this," he says.

Elbayoumy says the family is considering its legal options.

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Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.