U.S. Should Publicly Admit to Wrongful Rendition

The Open Society Justice Initiative has called on the U.S. to publicly confirm that the extraordinary rendition of Khaled El-Masri was a mistake. The letter sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also encourages the U.S. to provide, in light of its observer status with the Council of Europe, any assistance sought by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of El-Masri v. Macedonia.

At the U.S. government's request, Macedonian security forces seized El-Masri in December 2003 at a border crossing with Serbia and held him—incommunicado—for 23 days. He was then handed over to the CIA and flown to a detention center in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was interrogated and abused. After several months, El-Masri was finally released. He was never charged with a crime or given any explanation for his treatment.