Judge rejects rendition suit

Fri., May 19, 2006

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

ROCKVILLE, Md. – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by a German man who said he was illegally detained and tortured in overseas prisons run by the CIA, ruling that a lawsuit would improperly expose state secrets.

Thursday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III makes no determination on the validity of the claims by Khaled al-Masri, who said he was kidnapped on New Year’s Eve 2003 and detained for nearly five months before finally being dumped on an abandoned road in Albania.

The ruling hands a victory to the Bush administration, which intervened in the civil lawsuit.

During his detention, al-Masri said he was beaten and sodomized with a foreign object by his captors. He also alleges that a CIA team forced him to wear a diaper, drugged him before a flight to an Afghan prison and refused to contact German authorities.

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Judge rejects rendition suit

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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