Khaled El-Masri v. United States
Mr. El Masri filed a civil suit in the courts of the United States against United States’ officials and a number of corporations. The central claim in his lawsuit is that he was apprehended in Macedonia where he says he was denied legal representation, consular access or contact with his family and was harshly interrogated for 23 days. He says that he was then handed over to US agents who beat, stripped and drugged him. He was then held incommunicado in Afghanistan for over four months where he says he was tortured before being dumped on a hilltop in Albania.
Mr. El Masri was denied access to a court in the US on the basis that the adjudication of his case would jeopardise ‘state secrets’. In 2008, Mr. El Masri then filed his case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and REDRESS submitted a third party intervention arguing that the case should be decided as a matter of urgency and that ‘state secrets’ cannot be used as a barrier to access to justice. The case has been communicated to the United States but a decision by the Inter-American Commission has not yet been taken.
- REDRESS' Amicus Curiae Submission (30 March 2009) English
