Albanian rights group takes government to court seeking details on alleged CIA kidnapping

TIRANA, Jan 12 – An Albanian civil rights group has sued the government to force it to divulge information on an alleged CIA abduction five years ago, according to an international news agency.
Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, says he was abducted in December 2003 at the Serbian-Macedonian border, then flown by the CIA to a detention center in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was interrogated and abused.
El-Masri says he was released in Albania in May 2004, and that his captors told him he had been seized in a case of mistaken identity.
The Center for Development and Democratization of Institutions told The Associated Press it had filed two suits at a court in Tirana, demanding the Interior and Defense Ministries provide details on how el-Masri was brought to Albania.
The lawsuits have never before been publicly discussed.
The group filed the suits after the ministries refused to respond to freedom of information requests for documents related to the case.
“We can’t accept that people, whoever they may be, can be treated in Albania like this man was,” said the center’s head, Ilir Aliaj.
After landing at an Albanian military airport, El-Masri was driven for several hours through the mountains of Albania, according to a report by the Council of Europe, an international organization that promotes human rights. He was later put on a flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
Human rights campaigners have used el-Masri’s story to press the United States to stop flying terrorism suspects to countries where they could face abuse, a practice known as “extraordinary rendition.”
Aliaj said the interior and defense ministries have refused to provide information on El-Masri’s presence in Albania, other than saying he left in May 2004. Aliaj said the government argued that it could not provide details on privacy grounds, and then, presented with legal permission from el-Masri, claimed the information was classified because it involved a military airport.
The two ministries were not at ease to talk about the issue and both declined to respond directly to the case with the officials saying they would seek information.
The lawsuits filed by Aliaj’s organization seek to compel the ministries to divulge information on why and how el-Masri entered the country, as well as his subsequent movements and any cooperation between Albanian and foreign officials on the matter.