US Faces Questions over 'Kidnappings' in Europe

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/052105Z.shtml

 

 

US Faces Questions over 'Kidnappings' in Europe

Reuters

 

Friday 20 May 2005

 

Berlin - Pressure is growing on the United States to respond to

allegations that its agents were involved in spiriting terrorist

suspects out of three European countries and sending them to nations

where they may have been tortured.

 

In Italy, a judge said this week that foreign intelligence

officials " kidnapped " an Egyptian suspect in Milan two years ago and

took him to a US base from where he was flown home.

 

In Germany, a Munich prosecutor is preparing a batch of questions

to US authorities on the case of a Lebanese-born German who says he

was arrested in Macedonia on New Year's Eve 2003 and flown by US

agents to a jail in Afghanistan.

 

And in Sweden, a parliamentary ombudsman has criticized the

security services over the expulsion of two Egyptian terrorism

suspects who were handed over to US agents and flown home aboard a US

government-leased plane in 2001.

 

Campaign group Human Rights Watch said there was credible evidence

the pair had been tortured while being held incommunicado for five

weeks after their return. One was later convicted in a " patently

unfair " trial.

 

" We know it's not right to send people back to torture. That's

criminal. That's the one factor that ties all these cases together

right now, " Julia Hall of Human Rights Watch said in a telephone

interview.

 

" But whether they're kidnappings, whether they're abductions,

whether they occur always with the collaboration of security services

in the host country - these are things that still have yet to be

determined. "

 

Assurances against Torture

 

Secret transfers of suspects to foreign states for interrogation

are an acknowledged tool of the United States in the war on terrorism,

but it denies charges that the practice - known as rendition - amounts

to outsourcing torture.

 

" (In) the post-9/11 world, the United States must make sure we

protect our people and our friends from attack ... And one way to do

so is to arrest people and send them back to their country of origin

with the promise that they won't be tortured, " President Bush said in

March.

 

" We seek assurances that nobody will be tortured when we render a

person back to their home country. "

 

Human Rights Watch argues such assurances are worthless.

 

The latest twist came in the case of Egyptian cleric Hassan

Mustafa Osama Nasr, who disappeared from a Milan street in February 2003.

 

Italian judge Guido Salvini said in a court document, obtained by

Reuters: " It is now possible to affirm with certainty that he was

kidnapped by people belonging to foreign intelligence networks

interested in interrogating him and neutralising him, to then hand him

over to Egyptian authorities. "

 

Although he did not identify the foreign agents responsible,

Salvini said Nasr had been " taken to an American base, interrogated

and beaten and taken the next day on board a US military plane " to Egypt.

 

It was not until a year later, Salvini said, that Nasr was heard

from again in phone calls, including one to his wife. Italian media

have reported he told her he was tortured in Egypt and partially lost

his hearing.

 

Salvini is investigating suspects linked to Nasr and is not

responsible for the probe into his disappearance. That case is being

handled by the Milan prosecutor's office, which said Salvini did not

have access to all the documents and expressed surprise at his

conclusions.

 

But his comments were the hardest yet by judicial authorities in

Europe on the alleged renditions.

 

German Probe

 

In Germany, Munich prosecutor Martin Hofmann said he was

finalising an official request to the United States for information on

the case of Khaled el-Masri.

 

The German citizen says he was arrested in Macedonia on Dec. 31,

2003 and flown by US agents to an Afghan jail. Only five months after

being seized was he flown back to Europe and dumped without

explanation in Albania, from where he made his way home.

 

NBC News reported last month that Masri was snatched because he

shared the same name as an al Qaeda suspect. It said even when

investigators realized the error, he was held another six weeks in an

Afghan jail dubbed the Salt Pit before being freed.

 

" I'm investigating kidnapping, physical injury, duress and

deprivation of freedom, " said Hofmann, who is also seeking information

from Macedonia and Albania.

 

But investigators face formidable obstacles to prove what happened

and hold anyone to account. Hofmann said he could not bring any

charges unless he could identify those individuals involved in Masri's

alleged abduction.

 

" The problem is, I need the persons responsible. So far the

investigation is into 'unknown persons', " he told Reuters.

 

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