man who was held for years at the Guantanamo Bay prison will testify on Capitol Hill today. Murat Kurnaz, who was born in Germany, was declared an enemy combatant and held at Guantanamo Bay for almost four years even though U.S. investigators couldn't tie him to al Qaeda.
Kurnaz was freed after Germany's chancellor made a personal plea to President Bush.
He told CBS' 60 Minutes he was tortured at Guantanamo.
According to Kurnaz, he was detained by Pakistani police at age 19 while traveling through the country and transferred to U.S. custody three months after 9/11. During his 60 Minutes interview, Kurnaz claimed that American troops held his head underwater during interrogations, shocked his body with electricity and suspended him by his arms from the ceiling of an aircraft hangar for five days while at a military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
After six weeks in Kandahar, Kurnaz said he was transferred to Guantanamo where he faced beatings from guards, sleep deprivation and periods of solitary confinement. All the while, according to his American lawyer Baher Azmy, both American and German intelligence officials had begun circulating reports indicating Kurnaz's innocence.
However, according to Azmy, Kurnaz was held for another three-and-a-half years as U.S. officials kept producing new charges against him. Kurnaz was freed in August 2006, only after a personal plea from the German chancellor to President Bush.
In a written statement to 60 Minutes, Defense Department officials called Kurnaz's claims "unsubstantiated" and "outlandish."
His appearance before a House panel comes as the Justice Department inspector general releases a long awaited report. It reportedly concludes that the FBI was sometimes slow to report its concerns about terror suspects being mistreated at Guantanamo and elsewhere.