ACLU Files Landmark Lawsuit Challenging CIA’s “Extraordinary Rendition” of Innocent Man (12/6/2005)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org
Companies that Owned and Operated Airplanes Used in CIA Kidnapping Also Named
in Lawsuit
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the first
ever lawsuit against former CIA director George Tenet challenging the CIA’s
abduction of a foreign national for detention and interrogation in a secret
overseas prison. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, an
innocent German citizen victimized by the CIA’s policy of “extraordinary
rendition.”
“Kidnapping a foreign national for the purpose of detaining and interrogating
him outside the law is contrary to American values,” said Anthony D. Romero,
Executive Director of the ACLU. “Our government has acted as if it is
above the law. We go to court today to reaffirm that the rule of law is
central to our identity as a nation.”
The lawsuit charges that George Tenet and other CIA officials violated U.S.
and universal human rights laws when they authorized agents to kidnap El-Masri,
and that his unlawful abduction and treatment were the direct result of an
illegal CIA policy known as “extraordinary rendition.”
The lawsuit also charges that the three corporations that owned and operated
the airplane used to transport El-Masri to detention in Afghanistan are legally
responsible for assisting in the violation of his civil and human rights.
These corporations supplied the aircraft and provided the personnel used in the
illicit transportation of El-Masri, knowing that the transfer was illegal,
according to the ACLU.
“The CIA’s policy of extraordinary rendition is a clear violation of
universal human rights protections,” said Steven Watt, the ACLU’s primary human
rights advisor on the case. “Snatching Mr. El-Masri off the street and
hiding him away in a secret prison was illegal under American and international
law. Keeping him imprisoned after his innocence was established was
immoral by any standard.”
According to the ACLU lawsuit, El-Masri, a 42-year-old German citizen and
father of five young children, was forcibly abducted while on holiday in
Macedonia. He was detained incommunicado, beaten, drugged, and
transported to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan, where he was subjected to
inhumane conditions and coercive interrogation. El-Masri was forbidden
from contacting a lawyer or any member of his family. After several months
of confinement in squalid conditions, he was abandoned on a hill in Albania with
no explanation, never having been charged with a crime.
According to the ACLU, soon after El-Masri was flown to Afghanistan, CIA
officers realized that they had abducted, detained, and interrogated an innocent
man. Tenet, former director the CIA, was notified about the mistake, yet
El-Masri remained in detention for two more months.
“I am asking the American government to admit its mistakes and to apologize
for my treatment,” said El-Masri. “Throughout my time in the prison, I
asked to be brought before a court but was refused. Now I am hoping that
an American court will say very clearly that what happened to me was illegal and
cannot be done to others.”
El-Masri had planned to be present at the press conference announcing the
filing of this lawsuit, and to visit Capitol Hill to share his account with
congressional aides. However, when his plane landed at Hartsfield
International Airport in Atlanta on Saturday night, he was denied entry to the
United States by officials of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement. El-Masri was sent back to Germany on the next available
flight. U.S. officials have provided no reason for their refusal to admit
El-Masri, a German citizen who has never been charged with a crime.
The issue of CIA clandestine prisons is receiving a lot of attention recently
in the American as well as international press. Much of this attention has
been generated by reports of CIA secret prisons in Eastern Europe and the recent
release of logs detailing flights used by the CIA in “extraordinary
rendition.”
The lawsuit, El-Masri v. Tenet, will be filed this morning in the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
El-Masri is represented by Ann Beeson, Ben Wizner and Melissa Goodman of the
ACLU National Legal Department, Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris
& Hoffman, LLP, Rebecca Glenberg of the ACLU of Virginia, and Victor
Glasberg of Victor M. Glasberg & Associates.
More information is available online at: www.aclu.org/rendition
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