Murat Kurnaz

Guide Note

German resident Murat Kurnaz was held at the American base at Guantanamo Bay for five years without being formally charged. Kurnaz stated that he was repeatedly interrogated and tortured and kept under inhumane conditions. After his case was finally taken to court in 2005, he was released to return to Germany in August of 2006.

Fast Facts

1. Born: March 19, 1982
2. Birthplace: Bremen, Germany
3. Arrested: December, 2001
4. Released from Guantanamo Bay: August 24, 2006
5. Sold to the U.S. Miliary for $3,000
6. Published the memoir, Five Years of My Life, An Innocent Man in Guantanamo in April, 2007

Captured in Pakistan

Although legally a Turkish citizen because of his parents' citizenship status, Kurnaz was born and raised in Bremen, Germany. Newly married, the nineteen year old traveled to Pakistan alone in October 2001, reportedly to study the Quran and learn more of what was expected from him by his religion. On the way to the airport to return home to Germany in November, he was accosted by police and eventually sent to Guantanamo Bay.

Unsupported Evidence

Questions remain as to whether officials had reasonable cause for detaining him, as the little incriminating evidence that was released was unsupported and conflicted with exonerating evidence. The German Federal Office of Criminal Investigations file on Kurnaz appears to connect him to Islamic terrorists. Other reports, however, fail to find any terrorist ties, including official U.S. and German documents that stated his innocence in 2002, three years before he was actually freed.

Quotes

1. "A guard at Guantánamo once complained that I had not given them any new information and had just continued to say the same thing. 'You would have surely expected more for your five thousand dollars,' I said to him. 'Three thousand,' he replied. 'We only paid three thousand for you.'"—Murat Kurnaz
2. "They didn't have any big fish. And they thought that by torture they could get one of us to say something. 'I know Osama' or something like that. Then they could say they had a big fish."—Murat Kurnaz
3. "For us what is very important is that he had no weapons when he was arrested, that he was arrested in Pakistan, not on the battlefield in Afghanistan, and he was arrested by the Pakistani police during a routine check of a bus."—Bernard Docke, lawyer to Murat Kurnaz