Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 people believed to be CIA agents over the alleged kidnapping of a Lebanese-born German national, in one of the best-known cases of US "renditions" of terror suspects.
The prosecutor's office in Munich, southern Germany said in a statement that the city's administrative court had issued the arrest warrants on suspicion of abduction and grievous bodily harm.
German Khaled el-Masri is seen in Ulm, Germany, December 11, 2005. Germany played no part in the U.S. abduction of a German citizen who was held as a terrorist suspect in Afghanistan, the government said on Wednesday, describing it for the first time as a possible crime. REUTERS/Alexandra Winkler
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German authorities are probing allegations by Khaled el-Masri that he was abducted by US agents in the Macedonian capital Skopje on New Year's Eve 2003 and flown to a prison in Afghanistan for interrogation before he was released five months later in Albania.
Masri has said he was tortured while imprisoned.
The prosecutor's office said it had received in December 2005 from Masri's lawyer a list of names of people on board the plane that took Masri to Afghanistan. The list originated from a Spanish journalist citing the country's Civil Guard.
The plane is believed to have taken off from the airport in Palma de Mallorca, picked up Masri in Macedonia and taken him to Afghanistan.
In 2006, Spanish and Italian authorities provided further information about the flights, the office said.
"These findings, as well as other information uncovered in the probe, led to the strong suspicion that these 13 identifiable people were involved in the abduction of Masri," the office said in a statement.
"According to the information we have, the suspects listed in the arrest warrants are believed to be so-called code names of CIA agents. The investigation will now focus on learning the actual names of the suspects."
Public broadcaster NDR had reported earlier that most of the CIA employees sought lived in North Carolina in the United States.
NDR noted that the German arrest warrants were not valid in the United States and that US authorities had refused to cooperate with the investigation.
If the suspects were to travel to the European Union, however, they could be arrested.
NDR said Spanish authorities had learned the identities of all 13 agents on board and had copies of some of their passports.
Although all of the names given were believed to be aliases, NDR said it was possible, using other data, to learn their real names.
The report said three of the suspects worked for Aero Contractors, believed to be the CIA's secret airline.
Beyond the criminal investigation, the German parliament has launched a probe into Masri's case that has heard witnesses including Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his predecessor Joschka Fischer.
Masri is also pursuing a 75,000-dollar compensation claim against the CIA in US courts.
He is one of the most high-profile cases of the "extraordinary renditions" undertaken by the CIA as part of US anti-terror efforts.
Copyright © 2007 AFP
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