A German car salesman of Lebanese birth who was the victim of a mistaken “extraordinary rendition” by the CIA is to have his case heard by the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday.
14 May 2012 - The case of Khalid el-Masri, 48, will be heard before a panel of 17 judges in Strasbourg, the first time it has been considered in open court more than eight years after he was arrested in error by Macedonian border guards, handed over to the CIA and flown to a detention centre in Afghanistan known as the “salt pit”.
The case sparked an outcry after Mr Masri was dumped on an Albanian mountain road in May 2004, and was instrumental in lifting the veil on the CIA’s black operations teams that moved al-Qa’eda suspects around the world in the early years of the “war on terror”.
The Macedonian government has always officially denied handing over Mr Masri to the CIA, however *The Telegraph* can reveal that the European Court is expected to hear new evidence from a senior former Macedonian government minister that will contradict those claims.
“One of the most powerful pieces of evidence in the case is that a former senior minister of the Macedonian government has provided testimony that is in the file, essentially confirming Mr el-Masri’s account,” said James Goldston, a lawyer from the US-based Open Society Justice Initiative, who is representing the appellant. read more>>>
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