Macedonia called to account over CIA rendition case

The European court of human rights has for the first time told a state it has a case to answer over the CIA's practice of seizing terror suspects and subjecting them to mistreatment in secret jails. It has called Macedonia to account for seizing Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen, at the request of the US in December 2003 and held him incommunicado for 23 days. Masri was handed over to the CIA and flown to a detention center in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was confined in what have been described as appalling conditions, interrogated and abused. Four months later, Masri was flown by the CIA to a base in Albania where he was dumped on a roadside. The case against Macedonia, which has become the first government called to account by an international court for its collaboration with the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, was brought by the Open Society Justice Initiative, an independent New York foundation supported by George Soros. The Strasbourg-based court told the Macedonian government it had a case to answer on Oct. 8. "With this case, the European court has gone beyond the US judiciary in responding to the torture and abuse associated with unlawful rendition," said James Goldston, executive director of the Open Society Justice Initiative. "Khaled el-Masri has endured a terrible ordeal, and he has a right to justice and public acknowledgment of his mistreatment."