BERLIN, June 1 (UPI) -- The German foreign spy agency has admitted withholding information of a German man arrested abroad and handed to the United States as a suspected terrorist.
The Bundesnachrichtendienst disclosed that an employee was told in Macedonia in January 2004 that Khaled el-Masri was arrested there by local authorities and turned over to the United States, Deutsche Welle reported.
Previously, the German government said that it only learned of the alleged abduction in May 2004.
El-Masri claims he was abducted by U.S. agents and held and tortured for months in an Afghani jail before being released and flown to Albania.
He filed a lawsuit in the United States and is also seeking compensation from Germany.
"We are clearly in a rather embarrassing situation now," the spokesman said. "It is highly regrettable but it can't be changed."
