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Release of German-Born Guantanamo Prisoner Expected Soon

Deutsche Welle
August 21, 2006

Top German politicians have been advocating his release for months. Now it looks like Murat Kurnaz from Bremen will return home by the end of the month, after more than four years at Guantanamo.

"It's clear that Mr. Kurnaz will be flown to Germany; only the exact day is not yet clear," Kurnaz' lawyer Bernhard Docke told German news agency dpa on Sunday. The Financial Times Deutschland daily and Der Spiegel newsmagazine had previously reported he would be transferred to Germany in August.

Berlin had refused American demands that Kurnaz be put under round-the-clock surveillance and his passport confiscated, according to Der Spiegel. The magazine also reported that Berlin had rejected a US request to take in additional GuantanamoBay prisoners.

The German government neither confirmed nor denied reports of Kurnaz' impending release from the US prison for terror suspects. Berlin and Washington "will continue to work on resolving the case," a foreign ministry spokeswoman told Reuters.

Berlin has advocated Kurnaz' release for some time and Chancellor Angela Merkel even brought up the matter during President George Bush's visit to Stralsund in July.

Murat Kurnaz was born in Bremen of Turkish parents in 1982 and lived in Germany with a permanent residence permit until his arrest. He does not have German citizenship.

Four years in Guantanamo

In 2001, he traveled to Pakistan, where he visited several Islamic schools and was arrested by Pakistani police during routine checks, reported Die Welt newspaper. He was then handed over to US authorities in Afghanistan and taken to the prison on GuantanamoBay in Cuba in early 2002.

American officials suspected Kurnaz of being a dangerous extremist, though a US court found these allegations to be untrue in January 2005.

Both Amnesty International and Docke claim Kurnaz was held under inhumane conditions in Guantanamo, beaten and chained to his bed for days on end, reported Die Welt.

"I would be really happy for Kurnaz" (if he were released), said Docke in an interview with AP. "Everyday that he sits there is terrible."

Some 450 terror suspects are being held at the US prison on GuantanamoBay. Only around 10 of them have appeared before legal tribunals.

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