Germany’s counterterrorism policies and practices bring these commitments into question. A series of scandals have brought to light credible allegations of complicity in torture and illtreatment by German intelligence, security and law enforcement personnel. Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen arrested on the Serbia-Macedonia border in December 2003, transferred to US custody and held for four months in secret CIA detention in Afghanistan before being released without charge, alleges he was visited during his detention in Afghanistan by an official with the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA). The German government denies this allegation. German citizen Mohammad Zammar, detained and tortured in Morocco in 2001 then transferred by the US to Syria, was interrogated by a group of German intelligence and law enforcement personnel while he was detained in the notorious Palestine Branch (Far’Falestin prison) in Damascus.93 In a joint report published in March 2010, the special rapporteur on human rights while countering terrorism, Martin Scheinin, and the special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, concluded that the German government was complicit in Zammar’s secret detention in Syria because it knowingly took advantage of the situation to obtain information.94 According to the European Parliament’s inquiry into European complicity in the US extraordinary renditions program, the BKA provided information to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation that facilitated Zammar’s arrest. 95 Finally, Federal Intelligence Service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) agents interrogated German resident Murat Kurnaz in Guantanamo Bay in 2002 and 2004 while failing to assist in his release until 2006.96 Kurnaz alleges he was mistreated by members of the German Special Forces Commando (Kommando Spezialkräfte, part of the German Army) while in US custody in Afghanistan prior to his transfer to Guantanamo Bay. Two German soldiers, Kurnaz maintains, forced him to lie on the ground with his hands tied behind his back, while one pulled him up by the hair and then hit his head on the ground. 93 Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe, “Alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees involving Council of Europe member states, June 12, 2006, http://assembly.coe.int/CommitteeDocs/2006/20060606_Ejdoc162006PartII-FINAL.pdf (accessed November 11, 2009), para. 191. 94 UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, “Joint Study on Global Practices in Relation to Secret Detention in the Context of Countering Terrorism,” UN Doc. A/HRC/13/42, 19 February 2010, http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A-HRC-13-42.pdf, para. 159 (b). 95 European Parliament Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners, “Report on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners,” A6-0020/2007, January 30, 2007, para. 90. 96 Ibid., para. 85. 35 Human Rights Watch | June 2010