'US paid German hush money'
2006-11-24 07:43
Berlin - A German who says he was
kidnapped three years ago and held for months in Afghanistan by
the CIA was given money by the Americans to keep quiet, a former
German minister said on Thursday.
Otto Schily, interior minister at the time, told a
parliamentary committee investigating the case of Khaled
el-Masri that he was told about the hush money by Daniel Coats,
former US ambassador to Germany.
"Coats told me it had all been a mistake," Schily said under
oath, recalling a conversation he had with Coats at the end of
May 2004 about the abduction by the CIA of Masri, a German of
Lebanese origin.
Schily told the inquiry that Coats said at the time that an
Arab man with a German passport had been taken into custody,
adding that the Americans had suspected his passport was fake
and that Masri was on a US "watch list".
"The terrorism theory was not confirmed," Schily said. "They
(the Americans) apologised, gave him money and he promised to
keep quiet."
Masri says he was arrested while in Macedonia on December 31
2003, handed over to the CIA and flown to Afghanistan where he
was imprisoned, interrogated and tortured.
Washington has refused to comment specifically on the Masri
affair, but says it regrets any mistakes it might have made.
US embassy officials could not be reached on Thursday for
comment on Schily's testimony.