USA: Court dismisses El-Masri case on grounds of state secrets

On 18 May, a District Judge dismissed a case filed against the former CIA Director and several CIA agents by Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen who was allegedly abducted from Macedonia and tortured by the CIA. The judge accepted the Government’s argument that the case could not be continued as it related to state secrets. On 1 June, German intelligence services acknowledged that one of its employees knew, but failed to report, that a German citizen had been arrested abroad and handed over to the United States as a terrorist suspect. A German Parliamentary Committee is investigating allegations that the German intelligence services were complicit in Khaled El Masri’s abduction.

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