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 Friday, March 02, 2007 |
Federal appeals court affirms dismissal of el-Masri rendition case
Mike Rosen-Molina at 6:22 PM ET
[JURIST] The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday upheld [opinion, PDF] the dismissal of a rendition-related lawsuit [complaint, PDF] by German citizen Khaled El-Masri [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] against the CIA [official website], deciding that the case could not be heard in a US court because of the government's state secrets privilege [Sourcewatch backgrounder]. The lawsuit [ACLU materials], argued by ACLU [advocacy website] lawyers, charged former CIA director George Tenet [Sourcewatch profile] and CIA officials with violating international human rights law by their involvement in the alleged kidnapping and extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] of El-Masri to Afghanistan in 2003. ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said [ACLU press release] the ruling turned the state secrets doctrine into "a shield that covers even the most blatant abuses of power.” AP has more.
El-Masri alleged that CIA agents kidnapped him while on vacation in Macedonia in 2003 and transferred him to Afghanistan, where he was held in a secret prison for five months and subjected to inhumane conditions and coercive interrogation. He was eventually released in Albania in 2004 without charge. In October 2006, el-Masri testified before a Spanish judge [JURIST report] as part of an investigation [JURIST report] into whether the CIA used Spanish airports to transport el-Masri to countries where they could legally torture him. In June 2006, a German investigator concluded that no evidence had surfaced to disprove el-Masri's story [JURIST report]. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier denied [JURIST report] in December 2006 that Germany had any knowledge of the alleged kidnapping.
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Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible, ad-free format.
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