Man claiming CIA torture held in arson
A German citizen who said the CIA kidnapped him and tortured him in an Afghan prison has been detained on suspicion of arson and sent to a hospital psychiatric ward, police said.
Khaled Masri, 43, set fire to the entrance of a wholesale market in the southern German town of Neu-Ulm, police said.
The damage was estimated at $680,000.
Masri’s lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, said his client had “a complete nervous breakdown.”
“Torture victims have to be in therapy,” Gnjidic said.
Masri, of Lebanese descent, said he was mistakenly identified as an associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers and seized in 2003.
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