Advertisement

US must give access to student terror suspect, says Polenz

Author thumbnail
US must give access to student terror suspect, says Polenz
Bagram air base near Kabul. Photo: DPA

The head of the German parliamentary committee on foreign affairs on Thursday called for the US to grant access to a student being held on suspicion of planning terror attacks in Kabul.

Advertisement

“The man has German citizenship,” conservative Ruprecht Polenz told daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. “Therefore the US should make consular supervision possible for German agents.”

The 23-year-old suspect, identified as Haddid N., is currently being held at Bagram air base prison north of Kabul where he was arrested on January 8.

The young man from Frankfurt is reportedly of Afghan origin, and his family has insisted that he was in Kabul only to visit his father.

Bremen-based lawyer Bernhard Docke, who defended Guantanamo Bay prisoner Murat Kurnaz, told the paper that Germany had a right to see the suspect.

“There must be consular access,” he said. “If the Americans refuse this then it is a statutory violation.”

German authorities must also insist that the young man not be tortured, he added.

In an interview with daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday, Haddid N.’s family accused German security forces of responsibility in his arrest by passing on unsubstantiated information about alleged criminal intentions to officials in Afghanistan.

But the Federal Criminal Police (BKA) in Wiesbaden said they had not passed any information to foreign officials that might have led to the man’s arrest.

The Frankfurt state prosecutor launched an investigation against Haddid N. in July 2010 based on suspicions he planned to train at a militant camp in Pakistan, the paper reported.

DAPD/ka

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also