WASHINGTON -- A federal appeals court says a U.S. citizen can't sue a group of FBI agents he says falsely imprisoned and tortured him for several months in Africa.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-1 Friday that Amir Meshal's lawsuit can't move forward because the agents' conduct took place overseas during a terrorism investigation.

The ruling upholds a lower court decision last year that threw out Meshal's case.

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Meshal filed his lawsuit in 2009, claiming that after he left Somalia for neighboring Kenya, FBI agents interrogated him and accused him of receiving training from al-Qaeda.

The appeals court said the fact that Meshal is a U.S. citizen does not outweigh the court's reluctance to interfere with matters of national security.