Furcal was in court to answer charges that a drunken-driving arrest last month violated his probation from an incident in 2000.
Critics charged that such arrests would violate international law.
He also unsuccessfully appealed in 1989 to the European Commission of Human Rights alleging that his arrest violated the European Convention on Human Rights.
His lawyer, Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the arrest had violated a court decree.
Mr. Schillaci has sued the city in federal court, contending that his arrest and his subsequent public humiliation violated his civil rights.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Abdul Rahman's arrest and trial "clearly violates the universal freedoms that democracies around the world hold dear."
Did the police officer arrest and search of William Beck violate Beck's rights under the Fourth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment?
In 2004, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in a 5-2 decision that the arrest did not violate the protesters' First Amendment rights.
The arrest of political opponents in Belarus violates all these basic freedoms.
Iran complained loudly that the men were diplomats and that their arrest violated accepted diplomatic rules.