A Syrian, who worked as a driver in Iraq, filed a suit in Paris on Tuesday for "maltreatment and torture" against a US general who commanded a Marine offensive in Falluja.
Mohammed al-Jundi said in the complaint he was held by US Marines for nine days and mistreated in November after being released by kidnappers who had taken him hostage with French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot in August.
Al-Jundi now lives in France.
His lawyers said the civil suit was directed against General John Sattler, who was commanding the Marines in Falluja when the US troops held al-Jundi and then released him by simply depositing him on a roadside without shoes or identity papers.
The lawyers said al-Jundi had little hope of success with his suit because French justice cannot investigate a complaint brought by a foreigner concerning an event that occurred abroad.
According to his lawyers, al-Jundi said US forces held him for nine days and blocked him from contacting his family. He said the Marines threatened him with death.
Chesnot and Malbrunot were released in December after four months in captivity by a rebel group called the Islamic Army in Iraq.