Costa Rica suspended legal cooperation with the United States and sent a protest note to the U.S. Embassy after Chief Prosecutor Francisco Dall'Anese was held at Miami International Airport on Wednesday in what U.S. authorities called a “routine security check.”

Outraged by his detention, Dall'Anese flew home the following day, skipping a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and other Central American prosecutors. Dall'Anese was held at the airport between one and two hours, according to press reports. Zachary Mann, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he may have been mistaken for someone else.

“This treatment is completely incomprehensible and unacceptable,” Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno wrote in a letter to acting U.S. Ambassador Peter Brennan Friday. “This offense to our chief prosecutor is an offense to all Costa Ricans.”

Dall'Anese said he was suspending all cooperation with U.S. prosecutors on judicial cases, including extraditions, until his government is reimbursed for the cost of the trip, according to The Associated Press.

The U.S. Embassy apologized in a statement and said it had not known that Dall'Anese was traveling to the United States, even though the U.S. Justice Department had invited him.

“If we had been informed, we would have made sure that all courtesies were extended to Mr. Dall'Anese,” the statement said. “We never intended to show disrespect to Mr. Dall'Anese, the Costa Rican government, or its citizens.”

In addition to the meeting with Mukasey, Dall'Anese had planned to attend a summit for justice ministers and chief prosecutors at the Organization of American States and a court hearing connected to a corruption scandal in Costa Rica.

Separately, the Egmont Group, an informal global intelligence-sharing network, slapped Costa Rica and threatened to expel it from its 108-member club for failing to pass anti-terrorism laws (see story here http://www.ticotimes.net/topstory.htm).

John McPhaul contributed to this report.