But he might be telling the truth; a few days after Mr Egan was arrested, his "future brother-in-law", Elehecer Balaguer, claimed in a Bronx courtroom that he was responsible for pointing the laser at the plane.
In Sao Paulo, where protesters clashed with police on Tuesday after a demonstration against an increase in bus ticket prices, authorities have announced that people will not be arrested in future for carrying vinegar - a substance known to minimise the effects of tear gas.
Their logic is that Iranians in the U.S. were facing publicly announced charges and had access to an open trial, whereas the Americans held in Iran were charged, convicted and sentenced in secret -- if at all -- and appear to have been arrested for future use as bargaining chips.
The tools for arresting a dismal future are already in play, being pushed forward by innovators and thinkers who recognize the pressing need.
As leader of the Communist Party in Croatia in the early 1970s, she helped crush the Croatian independence movement, purging nationalists and separatists and arresting dissidents, including the future Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman.
The two women were still being treated as witnesses by the police but may be arrested in the future, Colonel Lubis said.
"We need all those who are still in prison to be released, and we need to ensure that no more are arrested in the future for their beliefs," Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi said.
Then she could have been arrested and her future as a student at the university could have been resolved through the university disciplinary proceedings".
Hermann's subtle collection, with its cathartic turning away from the past toward an uncertain but promising future, is equally arresting.
"We should be seeing more arrests in future," Wayne Bvudzijena, a spokesman for the Zimbabwe National Police, said today in a telephone interview from Zimbabwe.
