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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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May 19th,
2007 - Rendition Victim Sent to Mental Institution after Arson Attack |
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Rendition Victim
Sent to Mental Institution after Arson Attack By Tony Paterson The Indpendent May 19, 2007 German authorities have been
accused of failing to help a man who set fire to a supermarket while
suffering from severe depression caused by his kidnapping, imprisonment and
torture by the CIA. Khaled el-Masri has been a
"psychological wreck" and has lived in constant fear that his
children would be shot for the three years since he was released from an
Afghan prison by the US, according to his lawyer. The lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic,
was attempting to explain why the 43-year-old German of Lebanese descent went
berserk at a supermarket in the southern city of Ulm on Thursday and set fire
to it, injuring no one but causing half a million euros of damage. German state prosecutors
committed Masri to a psychiatric institution for an indefinite period
immediately after the arson attack. Mr Gnjidic said yesterday that in common
with other victims of the CIA's controversial "renditions"
programme, Masri had been severely traumatised by his experiences and had
been unable to recover. "This is an example of
what happens to torture victims when they are left on their own and not given
any proper treatment," Mr Gnjidic said. He said he had asked doctors and
appealed to the government for help in providing the kind of psychiatric care
his client badly needed, but nobody had offered to take him. He said that since his
release from a CIA prison in Afghanistan in May 2004, Masri had received only
superficial treatment at a centre for torture victims. "Mr Masri has
been left alone. One cannot simply sit back and wait until a case like this
explodes," he insisted. "He lives cooped up most of the time in his
apartment and in constant fear that his children could be shot. He has
suffered a complete nervous breakdown," he added. Khaled el-Masri was the
focus of international attention in 2004 after he was released from US
captivity and dumped on a road near the border between Macedonia and Albania
where he was told by guards: "Don't bother telling anybody what happened
to you - they won't believe you." But he later revealed to the
American press how the CIA had mistaken him for an al-Qa'ida suspect and
kidnapped him while he was on holiday and travelling through Macedonia on a
coach in December 2003. Masri was then flown to a CIA renditions prison in
Afghanistan where he was beaten and sexually abused by his captors for five
months before they realised they had detained the wrong person. His case is the subject of a
major parliamentary investigation in Germany over the extent to which the
then government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder had knowledge of the
kidnapping. In America, his case has been frequently cited by human rights
activists in their campaign to stop the practice of renditions. German state prosecutors
issued international warrants for the arrest of several suspected CIA agents
alleged to have taken part in Masri's abduction and torture in January after
US courts refused to take up his case, claiming that to do so would
jeopardise national security. Yesterday it emerged that
Masri's arson attack was the latest in a long line of acts of desperation
that appeared to stem from the deep psychological trauma he had been
suffering from since his captivity. Prosecutors said that Masri
also faced charges for allegedly attacking an instructor who had been
teaching him how to drive lorries. They said Masri had lost his temper after
the instructor criticised him for failing to attend his lessons. Prior to his arson attack on
the Metro supermarket, they said Masri had spat in the face of one of the
store's female staff after she refused to take back an iPod he had bought
there. External link: http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2559986.ece |