Abou ElKassim Britel was arrested in 2002, imprisoned, tortured brutally, and detained until 2011. He has never received an official acknowledgement of wrongdoing, apology, or restitution from Pakistan, The United States, Morocco, or Italy, the governments responsible for his ordeal.

While traveling for business purposes, Abou ElKassim Britel was arrested and detained in Pakistan in March 2002. Mr. Britel, an innocent Italian citizen of Moroccan descent, was beaten with a cricket bat, suspended from the walls of his cell for extensive periods, and deprived of sleep for three days while tied to a gate. Interrogations by the police and Pakistani secret service agents were so violent that he required medical attention for a week afterward.

After two months, Mr. Britel was handed over to the CIA. Using a private aircraft based in North Carolina, U.S. agents secretly transported Mr. Britel to the notorious secret Temara prison in Morocco where he was held for over eight months in complete isolation. Throughout this savage ordeal, Mr. Britel's Moroccan captors continually tortured him and threatened him with greater pain, castration, sodomy with a bottle, and even death.

Under torture, Mr. Britel signed a “confession” that he was never permitted to read. He was then tried for terrorism offenses and convicted based on his forced confession. An observer from the Italian Embassy reported the trial did not conform to universally accepted standards, and its procedures were fundamentally flawed. The Italian government, however, did nothing to help Mr. Britel during his ordeal, even though it was aware of his secret detention and torture. In April 2011, Mr. Britel was finally released from prison and returned to Italy, but he and his family continue to suffer.

More information may be found at ncstn.org.

Acknowledge and apologize for the wrongful imprisonment and torture of Abou ElKassim Britel

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