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US army in Germany accused of illegal detention of terror suspects: report

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Berlin, Oct 7, IRNA
Germany-US-Prisoners
The German Federal Prosecutors Office said it was looking into allegations that the US army had illegally detained nd possibly tortured terror suspects at an American military base in the southwestern city of Mannheim, DPA reported Saturday.

A spokesman for the Federal Prosecutors Office said the ongoing probe began on September 21.

The online edition of Germany's Stern news magazine reported on Friday that the latest accusations were based on statement by a hear-say witness who claimed he or she heard the allegations from a US soldier named John Pierce.

According to the Stern report three Arab-speaking men had been held at a US military prison in the Coleman Barracks base in Mannheim from April until early September.

Meanwhile the US army has strongly denied the report.

There is no John Pierce "in this unit", the US army's Elizabeth Hibner told Stern.

According to Hibner, there are only US soldiers in this jail and no terror suspects.

The German government on Friday denied the existence of secret CIA jails on its soil following the allegations by the British prisoner said organization 'Reprieve'.

Addressing the press in Berlin, German deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg said, "There is nothing to these accusations. There were no and are no such as facilities in Germany."

He pointed out that the government had earlier this year reported "comprehensively" to a secret parliamentary committee on the issue of secret IA flights.

Citing reports from prisoners, Reprieve claimed that German territory and airspace may have been used to detain inmates transferred to the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We call upon the German government to order an independent investigation," said Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer who is legal director for Reprieve.

A delegation of the European parliament visited Berlin last month to investigate the extent of the German government's complicity with illegal CIA activities in Europe.

Berlin has consistently denied any involvement in the CIA's controversial rendition practices.

American President George W. Bush admitted last month that clandestine jails existed, but refused to say where.

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