Torture appeal denied
The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from Khaled al-Masri, a German citizen who claims the CIA had him abducted and sent to Afghanistan, where he was tortured. The court upheld a lower court’s ruling that al-Masri’s case could not proceed without compromising national security. Al-Masri alleges he was seized in Macedonia in late 2003 on suspicion of being a terrorist and handed over to the CIA, which flew him to an Afghan prison. He claims he was repeatedly beaten until his release in 2004. The Supreme Court’s decision cited a 1953 ruling that protects state secrets from being disclosed in open court.
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