German Testifies in Probe Into Alleged CIA Abduction
June 22, 2006
El-Masri, who is 42 and was born in Lebanon, said he was detained on Jan. 31, 2003, on the Serbian-Macedonian border on suspicion of terrorist activities and taken by the CIA to a detention center in Afghanistan, where he was forced to endure abusive interrogation. The German national claimed he was only released after the CIA realized they had the wrong man.
The German parliamentary investigation is now seeking to determine how much German officials knew about the el-Masri case and when they knew it. A key question is whether German intelligence played any role in el-Masri's detention.
How much did Germany know?
Until recently there was no evidence that German intelligence authorities were involved in or had inside knowledge of the affair, said Martin Hofmann, one of the state prosecutors examining the case. But recent developments could "shed a new light on the situation," he added.
It appears a technician from Germany's foreign intelligence service, the BND, and a previous telephone company employee had gained information about the abduction in Macedonia and reported it to German authorities in early 2004. Former Telekom director for Macedonia, Wolf-Dieter M., allegedly heard about the kidnapping of el-Masri and informed the German embassy in Skopje in January 2004.
The German authorities, however, maintain they first heard of the abduction and detention in Afghanistan after el-Masri was released in Albania in May 2004. In earlier statements, the BND insisted its officials were only tipped off after el-Masri was set free. They have also accused US authorities of stonewalling requests for additional information.
Both el-Masri and Wolf-Dieter M. are due to testify at the parliamentary hearing on Thursday.
Unidentified interrogator
El-Masri stands by his initial claims that he was abducted in Macedonia, transported to Afghanistan and abused in a CIA detention center. He has said he was interrogated during his ordeal by a fluent German speaker identified only as "Sam."
Prosecutors have so far have found "no indication 'Sam' was an employee of a German authority." Investigators, however, generally credit el-Masri's claims of abduction and detention as fact-based and see no indications that they are false, said Martin Hofmann ahead of the parliamentary hearing.
Meanwhile, el-Masri's lawyer Manfred Gnjidic told Berlin radio station RBB he had filed a complaint against the state prosecution for placing a tapping device on his telephone. He claimed intelligence authorities had been eavesdropping on his phone calls for months without his knowledge and called it a violation of his constitutional rights.