Army National Guard Major and attorney Mathew B. Tully, who nearly lost his life in Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, will be honored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for pro bono representation of Hikmat Joe Mansour, a U.S. citizen and government employee born in Beirut who claims he was subjected to ethnic and religious slurs in the immediate aftermath of terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Mr. Tully, of the Albany firm Tully, Rinckey & Associates, said e-mail slurs from Mr. Mansour’s co-workers at a federal penitentiary in Lee, Va., caused him to be passed over for job promotions. Mr. Tully is pursuing a complaint through the Equal Opportunity Commission.
In addition, Mr. Tully has filed a workers compensation claim in connection with an inmate attack on Mr. Mansour, a member of the prison’s special weapons and tactics team.
At the time of 9/11, Mr. Tully was a Brooklyn Law School student and a paralegal at Morgan Stanley, headquartered at the former World Trade Center. As Mr. Tully entered the lobby of his tower building that morning, a plane crashed into the twin structure next door.
The following day, Mr. Mansour alleges, his colleagues in Virginia began their hostilities. Mr. Mansour, who is fluent in Arabic, has received some 70 awards from the U.S. Department of Justice for warning authorities of known terrorists corresponding with one another within the federal prison system, said Mr. Tully, who learned of his client’s troubles through a mutual friend in the military.
The anti-discrimination group will recognize Mr. Tully during its 25th annual convention in Washington, D.C., over the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.
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