An American citizen convicted on terrorism charges in the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday he confessed under torture and suspected that U.S. authorities played a role in his detention and prosecution in the Gulf country.

Naji Hamdan, an American of Lebanese origin, was deported to Lebanon last week after completing his 18-month sentence in Abu Dhabi.

The Emirates' highest court convicted Hamdan on Oct. 12 on terrorism-related charges, including having links to an al-Qaida-affiliated group in Iraq, and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

Hamdan, 43, was freed shortly afterward because the court counted time he served before his conviction.

Speaking to The Associated Press in Beirut on Thursday, Hamdan called the charges against him "fabrications" that he admitted to during harsh interrogations by the Emirates' state security agents.

"The beating was so severe that I sometimes fainted," he said. He said interrogators kicked him in the liver after he told them he had liver problems.

Hamdan said he asked interrogators what they wanted to hear from him to stop the beatings, and they told him to admit to membership in al-Qaida. He agreed, he said.

Rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have accused U.S. authorities of pushing Hamdan's case in the Emirates because they lacked sufficient evidence for American courts. The ACLU asked a U.S. court to press for a halt to the case, but a U.S. judge ruled in August that there was no authority to interfere in a foreign country's criminal prosecution.

Hamdan was arrested in the UAE in Aug. 2008.

Hamdan said that nearly two months after he was detained, Emirates authorities gave him new clothes, told him he'd be released within a week and that a U.S. Embassy official would come meet him. He was ordered to say he had been treated well, he said.

He said he followed their orders, but tried to indicate to the American officer with gestures that he couldn't speak freely. Continued...