Germany Orders 13 Arrests Over Alleged CIA Kidnapping (Update3)
By Patrick Donahue
Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- A court in Munich ordered the arrest of 13 people for the alleged abduction of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who says he was seized by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and taken to a secret prison in Afghanistan.
Evidence collected by prosecutors yielded ``clearly identifiable'' individuals who may be undercover CIA agents, the Munich prosecutor, which obtained the warrants, said today on its Web site. The 13 could be charged with deprivation of liberty and aggravated assault for the alleged seizure of el-Masri on Dec. 31, 2003, in Macedonia.
El-Masri's claim of being kidnapped and flown to a prison where he was subjected to coercive interrogation has sparked a parliamentary probe in Germany and cast light on the U.S. practice of capturing terror suspects abroad and sending them to a third country, or ``extraordinary rendition.''
A 43-year-old of Lebanese descent, el-Masri says he was vacationing in Macedonia on New Year's Eve when he was abducted and taken to Afghanistan, where he was treated inhumanely. Former Interior Minister Otto Schily has testified to lawmakers that the U.S. issued an apology in May, 2004, and said el-Masri had been released when they discovered he'd been misidentified.
Lawyers for el-Masri in December 2005 supplied prosecutors with a document -- obtained by a Spanish journalist -- that lists the personnel aboard the plane el-Masri claimed flew him to Afghanistan, the German prosecutor said. Last year, suspects were further investigated with help from Spanish prosecutors and assistance from authorities in Milan.
Majorca Connection
``These findings and others in the investigation have now led to the basis for urgent suspicion'' about the individuals' participation in the kidnapping, the prosecutor said, adding that investigators will seek the true identities of the 13.
Broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk reported that most of the suspects live in North Carolina and three of them have refused to address the allegations when confronted. NDR said the crew operated out of Majorca and worked for Aero Contractors, the successor of the CIA's former secret airline Air America.
CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield, at the organization's Langley, Virginia, headquarters, declined to comment, as did Robert Wood, the press attaché at the U.S. embassy in Berlin.
The investigation is one of several European legal procedures examining alleged U.S. renditions. Milan prosecutors say CIA and Italian operatives kidnapped an Egyptian cleric in 2003 and flew him to Egypt, where he was tortured during questioning. Italy's former intelligence chief, Nicolo Pollari, told a court this week that he's being used as a scapegoat by prosecutors.
International Law
Lawmakers have pressed members of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government on what they knew about the el-Masri abduction. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was Schroeder's chief-of-staff, told a committee last month that Germany provided no assistance to the U.S., while Schily said in November that former U.S. ambassador Daniel Coats confirmed the abduction and asked him to treat the information confidentially.
Chancellor Angela Merkel said after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Dec. 6, 2005, in Berlin that the two had discussed el-Masri and that the ``the U.S. conceded'' that the seizure was ``a mistake.'' While U.S. officials later disputed Merkel's statement, the German government has said Merkel's statement ``can stand as it is.''
Last May, the CIA asked a judge to dismiss el-Masri's lawsuit because it involves secret information that can't be disclosed in court. The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented el-Masri, and other human rights groups have said such abductions violate international law and Bush administration pledges against torture.
Foreign Minister Steinmeier also faces pressure for his role in the prolonged imprisonment of a German-born Turk, Murat Kurnaz, at the Guantanamo Bay camp. Kurnaz's lawyers say the Schroeder government refused Kurnaz entry into Germany in the autumn of 2002, when the U.S. originally offered to release him from the prison camp.
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