CIA-RENDITION CASE OF KHALED EL-MASRI

In early June 2008 the ECCHR filed a complaint against the Federal Republic of Germany at the Administrative Court in Berlin on behalf of Mr. Khaled El Masri. The complaint submitted to the Administrative Court in Berlin by ECCHR appeals to the Federal Government and requests they issue an extradition warrant against the USA concerning the 13 CIA Agents suspected to have "rendered" Mr. Khaled El-Masri in 2003. On December 31st, 2003, on the border between Serbia and Macedonia, German citizen El-Masri was kidnapped by federal employees of the United States' Secret Service.

CIA agents mistook El-Masri for a suspected Al Qaeda or New Ulm terrorist. He was taken to a secret prison in Afghanistan, and for the next five months, El-Masri was regularly interrogated, and subjected to physical abuse and humiliation. He was set free in Albania, and on May 29th, 2004, he returned to Germany and filled a legal complaint. Those accused have also, as of January 31st, 2007, been charged with aggravated assault and false imprisonment by the Munich District Court.

Despite the seriousness of these charges, on September 22nd, 2007, the U.S. Federal Minister of Justice dismissed the extradition request. This ruling denied a torture victim an "effective remedy" under Article 2, paragraph I, Article 19, paragraph IV, and Article 20, paragraph III of the Basic Law. Moreover, this decision will prevent the further prosecution of international crimes by setting a legal precedent, which allows for torture and enforced disappearances. This is an unacceptable incursion on the rule of law. The U.S. Federal Government should be legally compelled to extradite thirteen CIA agents accused of the forced disappearance of a German citizen.

The details of El-Masri's ordeal are harrowing, but unfortunately, not unique. Since September 11th, 2001, the CIA has operated a classified program, under the umbrella term "Extraordinary Rendition," which has illegally detained and interrogated several hundred, non-U.S., victims, in the name of their "information campaign." The program involves the cooperation of foreign governmental bodies, which operate outside of international law, for the sake of the use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques.

The case has been accompanied by broad media coverage. Heribert Prantl, For Domestic Policy at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, claimed that the prosecution of the case was a matter of foreign policy, but acknowledged the obstacles to justice. He added that the story of El-Masri "teaches that violence is the third in a very small force, when it comes to big politics."