The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says Ali Mahmoud Ali Shafi was kidnapped on September 22, 2001, in Palestinian Authority-controlled territory and tortured for six months.

Shafi lived in the West Bank town of Qalqilya from 1948, when the state of Israel was created, until 1994, when he moved to Haifa, the lawsuit says. Before moving to Israel, he helped the Israeli security services prevent terrorist attacks on its citizens, it says.

In September 2001, he returned to Qalqilya so his daughter could visit her grandmother, and members of the Palestinian security service entered their house and asked him to accompany them to their headquarters for 10 minutes, the lawsuit says.

When he arrived at the headquarters, he was stripped, handcuffed and beaten, and hot salt water was poured onto his wounds, the lawsuit says. He escaped when Israel Defense Forces soldiers passed through town, scaring his guards, it says.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages on Shafi's behalf, saying it would be impossible for him to get justice in areas controlled by the defendants, which include the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization...