Khalid El-Masri

Khalid El-Masri

Khaled El-Masri (also Khalid El-Masri and Khaled Masri, Levantine Arabic pronunciation: [ˈxaːlɪd elˈmɑsˤɾi, -ˈmɑsˤɾe], Arabic: خالد المصري; born 29 June 1963) is a German, Lebanese and French citizen who was mistakenly abducted by the Macedonian police in 2003, and handed over to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). While in CIA custody, he was flown to Afghanistan, where he was held at a black site and routinely interrogated, beaten, strip-searched, sodomized, and subjected to other cruel forms of inhumane and degrading treatment and torture. After El-Masri held hunger strikes, and was detained for four months in the "Salt Pit", the CIA finally admitted his arrest was a mistake and released him. He is believed to be among an estimated 3,000 detainees, including several key leaders of al Qaeda, whom the CIA captured from 2001 to 2005, in its campaign to dismantle terrorist networks. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in 14 different languages on Wikipedia. Khalid El-Masri is the 773rd most popular social activist, the 35th most popular biography from Kuwait and the most popular Kuwaiti Social Activist.

Khalid El-Masri is most famous for being a German torture victim who was wrongfully abducted and detained by the CIA in 2003 as part of the U.S. government's extraordinary rendition program. His case has drawn significant attention to issues of human rights abuses and the legality of such practices.