BERLIN — A tale of torture and imprisonment told by a man with a scratchy voice and a beard flowing to his waist has shaken the German Parliament and sparked an intelligence agency scandal that has engulfed Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The case of spies and leaked documents has pointed up the injustices that can arise in the fight against terrorism. It has revealed to this nation, a frequent critic of Washington's treatment of suspected militants, that its own officials may have allowed an innocent German resident to languish for years in a U.S. prison cell at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The case began in 2001 when Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turk, was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of being a militant. He was transferred to Afghanistan, where he says American interrogators hung him from chains. He was sent to Guantanamo and held there until last August, when he was released.
He was never charged with a crime.
Intelligence documents cited by German media suggest Kurnaz, a 24-year-old shipbuilder, could have been freed years earlier.
The files indicate that the CIA offered to release Kurnaz and return him to Germany in 2002. One German intelligence operative noted that Kurnaz might be persuaded to turn informer and infiltrate radical Islamic networks. At the time Kurnaz's fate was being decided, Steinmeier oversaw German spy agencies as chief of staff to then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Documents being examined by a special committee of Parliament allege that Steinmeier and former foreign intelligence director August Hanning rejected the U.S. offer. It is unclear why the Germans apparently balked, but American officials have said in recent months that foreign nationals detained in Guantanamo often are not freed because their home countries fear they may be extremists and don't want them back.
The chance to have Kurnaz released "should have been taken," said lawmaker Max Stadler, a member of the special committee. "I can't see any sensible reasons why the former federal government missed this chance."
Steinmeier, who became Chancellor Angela Merkel's foreign minister in 2005, has denied that the U.S. planned to send Kurnaz to Germany.
"I am not aware of ... such an official offer," he said this week as politicians demanded that he be more forthcoming.
He is expected to testify before the special committee in March.
