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German-Born Turk to Be Freed From Guantanamo, Steinmeier Says
By Claudia Rach and Rainer Buergin
Bloomberg
August 24, 2006
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turk, will be released from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
The talks with the U.S. ``have now been successfully concluded in Washington,'' Steinmeier told a press conference in Berlin. Kurnarz may be released as soon as today, one of his two defense lawyers, Bernhard Docke, said in an e-mailed statement.
Germany's government has tried to contact U.S. authorities on several levels to bring Kurnaz, who was born in the northern city of Bremen, back to Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel has called several times for the closure of Guantanamo prison in her meetings with President George W. Bush this year.
Kurnaz was arrested on a trip to Pakistan in October 2001 as a suspected member of the al-Qaeda terrorist network, according to the Web site of the German section of Amnesty International. He's been detained without charge in Guantanamo since the beginning of 2002, it said. The U.S. military secret service has meanwhile said there are no signs Kurnaz was active in any terror-related matter, according to Amnesty International.
Kurnaz was questioned by German officials in Guantanamo in 2002 as there were indications he may have been involved in a possible Islamic terrorist cell in Bremen.
His interrogation is also subject to a German parliamentary committee that's investigating how much current and previous governments knew about intelligence and security-service activities that may have broken German law.
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