April 2011 The Ger­man ci­t­izen Khaled El Mas­ri was ab­duct­ed by CIA of­fi­cials at the Ser­bian-Mace­do­nian bor­der on 31 De­cem­ber 2003. The of­fi­cials had mis­tak­en­ly iden­ti­fied El Mas­ri as a mem­ber of Al Qai­da and a pos­si­ble par­ti­ci­pant in a Neu-Ulm-based ter­rorist cell. Khaled El Mas­ri spent near­ly five months in a se­cret CIA de­ten­tion cen­ter in Afghanis­tan. Dur­ing this time he was reg­u­lar­ly in­ter­ro­gat­ed, sub­ject­ed to phys­i­cal abuse, and hu­mili­at­ed. Even­tu­al­ly, the CIA brought him to Al­ba­nia where he was re­leased. He ar­rived back in Ger­many on 29 May 2004.

The case of El Masri is one of the best documented extraordinary renditions by the CIA. Several inquiry commissions took up this case and a number of lawsuits were filed before different national and regional courts. However, El Masri has not been granted any form of reparation or official apology for his kidnapping and mistreatment up to date by any of the involved states.

ECCHR filed a complaint in Germany to an administrative court seeking to enforce thirteen arrest warrants against former CIA officials, which were involved in El Masri’s abduction in Skopje and flight to Kabul. The German government, however, refused to officially ask the US for extradition of the indicted persons. The lawsuit was rejected on the merits by the Cologne administrative court. Ar­rest war­rants for the CIA em­ploy­ees were pre­vi­ous­ly is­sued by Mu­nich Dis­trict Court on 31 Jan­uary 2007 due to strong sus­pi­cions of grievous bod­i­ly harm and de­pri­va­tion of lib­er­ty.

Another criminal investigation is still on-going in Spain. ECCHR also supports a case brought against Macedonia before the European Court of Human Rights by the Open Society Justice Initiative with expert opinions about the German investigations. The ECHR accepted the case, which is currently pending a decision about an oral hearing of the parties.

Other cases were brought in the US and Macedonia on reparations, the former dismissed on grounds of state secrecy, the latter still pending before Macedonian courts. A complaint was also filed to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights and is still pending there.

Various parliamentary inquiry commissions also included the case of Khaled El Masri. The European Parliament, the Council of Europe and the German Parliament all investigated his case.

The case and judicial actions has also been an issue for the US diplomacy. Several cables from US embassy leaked by Wikileaks show the pressure the US exercised on various European states in avoiding judicial actions and lawsuits’ enforcement.

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