Washington pressured Berlin not to enforce arrest warrants against CIA agents involved in the alleged 2003 abduction of a German citizen, leaked documents showed Thursday. The information, made public in diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks and first reported by the New York Times, involved Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese origin.
In one of the most notorious examples of alleged "renditions" of "war on terror" suspects under the government of former US president George W. Bush, Masri says he was abducted by US agents in Macedonia on December 31, 2003. Masri said he was held and tortured in a secret US prison in Afghanistan before US agents realised he was innocent and released him, five months later, on an Albanian roadside.
Press reports said that US agents confused Masri with an al Qaeda operative with a similar name and alleged links to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. In January 2007 German prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 13 people in connection with the case after being given a list of names by Masri's lawyer, but this was dropped later that year.