BERLIN, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Germany's foreign minister is under increasing pressure to clarify his role in the case of a former Guantanamo inmate.
Murat Kurnaz, a German resident of Turkish nationality, spent four and a half years in the U.S. military prison as a terror suspect after he arrived there early in 2002. He relived his plight last week in front of a parliamentary inquiry.
Secret government documents that have recently surfaced in the German media claim Washington offered to release him as early as 2002, after concluding that he was not a terrorist. Berlin, several newspapers write, refused to take him back at the time.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper claimed German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was a key figure in the decision not to take back Kurnaz. Steinmeier at the time was the top aide to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the coordinator of the country's intelligence services. Washington released Kurnaz in the summer of 2006 after energetic intervention by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
While Merkel has said she was standing behind her foreign minister, several opposition figures have called for a closer examination into Steinmeier's involvement and have asked for him to testify before the inquiry. Others have even called for his resignation.
"Was there a chance to free Mr. Kurnaz?" Hans-Christian Stroebele, a senior Green Party lawmaker and member of the inquiry board, asked in an interview with German news channel n-tv. "And why, if it existed, was this chance wasted? This is so outrageous that we have to clarify the matter quickly."
