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US will not hand over suspected CIA agents: Germany

US authorities have informed Germany that they will not extradite 13 suspected CIA agents sought in the alleged kidnapping of a German citizen.

A Justice Ministry spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, on Saturday confirmed a report in the weekly Der Spiegel that the US administration told Berlin it would not hand over the group.

She said the ministry had, as a result, decided against passing on Munich prosecutors' formal request for their arrest to Washington.

The Justice Ministry last month sounded out US authorities' willingness to cooperate with legal proceedings against the suspected agents, sending a legal request that officials say is a common first step in dealing with international arrest warrants.

Munich prosecutors issued warrants for the arrest of the 13 suspected CIA agents at the end of January, accusing the unidentified suspects of wrongfully imprisoning Khaled el-Masri and causing him serious bodily harm.

El-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, maintains that he was abducted in December 2003 at the Serbian-Macedonian border and flown by the CIA to a detention center in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he was abused.

He says he was released in Albania in May 2004, and that his captors told him he was seized in a case of mistaken identity.

Human rights campaigners have focused on el-Masri's story in pressing the US to stop flying terrorism suspects to countries other than the US where they could face abuse -- a practice known as "extraordinary rendition."

In a separate case, Italy also has issued arrest warrants for alleged CIA agents.

US officials have declined to address the case in public. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that the US has acknowledged making a mistake with el-Masri.

CIA spokesman George Little said on Saturday that the agency would not comment on the case.
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