[JURIST] Germany issued arrest warrants for 13 people allegedly involved with the CIA kidnapping of German citizen Khaled el-Masri [JURIST news archive], German Prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld said Wednesday. Schmidt-Sommerfeld did not name any of the suspects, however, but told AP that "the personal details contained in the arrest warrants are, according to our current knowledge, aliases of CIA agents." Schmidt-Sommerfeld further told AP that his office was led to the thirteen suspects when a Spanish journalist transferred to them a list of people possibly involved in the kidnapping.

El-Masri has alleged that CIA agents kidnapped him in 2003 in Macedonia and transferred him to Afghanistan, where he was held in a secret prison for five months and subjected to inhumane conditions and coercive interrogation before eventually being released in Albania in 2004 without charge. In November, lawyers for el-Masri argued [JURIST report] before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that his civil case [ACLU case materials] against the CIA for his alleged extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] should be reinstated. In October, el-Masri testified before a Spanish judge [JURIST report] as part of an investigation [JURIST report] into whether the CIA used Spanish airports to transport el-Masri to countries where they could legally torture him. In June, a German investigator concluded that no evidence had surfaced to disprove el-Masri's story [JURIST report]. AP has more.