Italian 'Extraordinary Rendition' Victim Still Held In Morocco Based On Tortured Confession

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Rights Groups Ask U.N. Special Rapporteurs To Investigate And Take Action

NEW YORK, June 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Human rights groups today asked two U.N. Special Rapporteurs to investigate the case of Abou Elkassim Britel, an Italian citizen and victim of the CIA's unlawful "extraordinary rendition" program who is currently held in a Moroccan prison based on a confession coerced from him through torture. The American Civil Liberties Union and Alkarama for Human Rights requested that the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism investigate the circumstances of Britel's forced disappearance, rendition, detention and torture, and raise his case with the governments of the United States, Morocco, Pakistan and Italy.

"Victims of the 'extraordinary rendition' program detained at Guantanamo and other prisons around the world are being ignored by the U.S. government, whose unlawful program landed them there in the first place," said Steven Watt, staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program. "The U.S. has failed to take responsibility for its most egregious actions, leaving Mr. Britel and countless other victims of the 'extraordinary rendition' program with no choice but to turn to the international community for justice."

Britel, also a plaintiff in the ACLU's lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen DataPlan for its role in the rendition program, is one of the few victims of the program whose identity is known, and who is still detained outside of Guantanamo Bay.

Britel was initially apprehended and detained in Pakistan by Pakistani authorities on alleged immigration violations in February 2002. After a period of detention and interrogation there, he was handed over to U.S. officials ...

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