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Murat Kurnaz

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Murat Kurnaz
Born (1982-03-19) March 19, 1982 (age 44)
Bremen, Germany
Occupation(s)Author, former detainee
Known forDetention at Guantanamo Bay without judicial process; author of memoir on Guantanamo experience

Murat Kurnaz (born 19 March 1982) is a Turkish national and lawful resident of Germany who was detained without judicial process by the United States at military sites in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba beginning in December 2001. He endured torture at both locations. By early 2002, intelligence agencies from the US and Germany had concluded that the charges against Kurnaz lacked merit.

Although the US offered to release him, Germany initially declined to take him back. As a result, Kurnaz remained imprisoned and subjected to mistreatment at Guantanamo for nearly five additional years. In 2007, he authored a memoir titled Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo, which was later translated into multiple European languages as well as English. In 2008, he provided testimony during US Congressional hearings concerning detainee treatment. Kurnaz and his family currently live in Germany.

Detention in Pakistan

Murat Kurnaz was born and raised in Bremen, Germany, and while legally residing there, he was considered a Turkish citizen due to his immigrant family background. He married a Turkish woman within Germany. At 19 years old, in October 2001, he traveled to Pakistan with plans to attend the Mansura Center (which ultimately rejected him) and spent two months engaged as a tablighi, moving between mosques. In December 2001, while on his way to an airport to return to Germany, Pakistani authorities stopped him at a checkpoint and subsequently transferred him to American military personnel. Following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks, US forces distributed leaflets in Afghanistan and Pakistan offering financial rewards for suspected terrorists. Kurnaz reported that numerous men were sent to Guantánamo as a result of these bounty offers, with one interrogator admitting he had been "sold" for $3,000.

Abuse in Kandahar, Afghanistan

After his release, Kurnaz recounted his experiences at Guantanamo in a memoir first published in German (2007) and later in English (2008). He described being restrained and beaten by US soldiers during transport from Pakistan to Kandahar. Although blindfolded upon arrival, he observed soldiers filming the detainees; these recordings were later presented as "proof" of captures occurring within Afghanistan despite his transfer originating from Pakistan.

US personnel stripped him naked and placed him outdoors inside a barbed wire enclosure alongside roughly twenty other detainees, exposing them to severe weather conditions. They were given opened MREs ("Meals Ready to Eat") providing fewer than 600 calories per day—significantly below the approximately 1,500 calories required for survival.

During interrogations, guards repeatedly struck him when he denied any connection with Osama bin Laden. He witnessed extreme mistreatment including fatal rifle-butt beatings inflicted on another prisoner. The torture intensified with electric shocks applied to his feet until he lost consciousness, as well as repeated water submersion leading to blackouts.

He was suspended by handcuffs from a pulley system for extended periods; after each suspension, an officer wearing a "doctor" insignia checked his pulse before raising him again. Additionally, he was hung upside down with his hands tied; fellow detainees indicated this practice could last up to five days and had caused fatalities at Bagram.

German special forces operatives bearing German flag insignias identified themselves as members of KSK during interrogations. Kurnaz hoped their presence would prompt communication with German officials and inform his family about his detention.

Torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

In the early hours of a morning, Kurnaz was dressed in orange prison attire, his head covered by a gas mask, ears muffled with soundproof headphones, and eyes protected by thick diving goggles. His hands were encased in mittens. Blindfolded and tightly restrained with handcuffs, he was struck in the face and kicked in the groin before being left on the ground. Several hours later, chained alongside other detainees, he was forced onto an aircraft where soldiers repeatedly struck prisoners to keep them awake. The intense sunlight and heat signaled their arrival in a foreign land.

During the bus ride to the detention cages, guards physically assaulted prisoners and permitted dogs to bite them. Kurnaz was taken to a tent for fingerprinting and DNA sampling prior to being confined to a small chain-link enclosure—his living space for five years, mostly limited to an area measuring roughly three and a half by three and a half feet.

Kurnaz characterized Guantanamo’s system as engineered to apply "constant maximum pressure" aimed at degrading and brutalizing detainees while ensuring their survival for intelligence gathering. He recounted that six prisoners died there—three from suffocation during one night and three others allegedly poisoned (although U.S. officials maintained all deaths were suicides).

Throughout his time at Guantanamo, Kurnaz suffered frequent beatings and exposure to pepper spray for minor offenses such as lying down or making eye contact with guards. Interrogators repeatedly posed the same questions, doubted his responses, and physically assaulted him when he lost consciousness from exhaustion to keep him alert. Common abuses included severe beatings and extended shackling in painful positions.

During an operation known as "Operation Sandman," soldiers deprived him of sleep for three consecutive weeks, forcing him to remain standing or kneeling around the clock. Toward the operation’s conclusion, he was barely conscious and had to be dragged between cages. He endured solitary confinement in a windowless refrigerated cell causing hypothermia, extreme heat exposure inside a container under the Cuban sun, and near-asphyxiation inside an airtight box. He experienced starvation or force-feeding, sexual humiliation, and relentless physical abuse.

Prisoners were terrorized by witnessing brutal treatment inflicted on fellow detainees: one Saudi prisoner had both legs amputated due to frostbite after being beaten; another lost all fingers except thumbs following frostbite; a third had healthy teeth extracted by a dentist after complaining of tooth pain. Injuries and fractures sustained during interrogations were left untreated. Kurnaz’s health deteriorated over time but he avoided medical visits out of fear of losing teeth, fingers, or limbs.

By early 2002, intelligence agencies from both the United States and Germany determined that Kurnaz had no involvement in terrorism. Nonetheless, he endured five additional years of harsh imprisonment until 2007.

Military tribunal designates him enemy combatant

After spending two and a half years at Guantanamo, Kurnaz appeared before a military tribunal in 2004. These Combatant Status Review Tribunals were instituted following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Rasul v. Bush, which granted detainees legal rights including due process and habeas corpus petitions challenging their detention. A Summary of Evidence memorandum outlined allegations supporting his classification as an "enemy combatant". Tribunal procedures barred Kurnaz from accessing or contesting his evidence file.

The case against Kurnaz included alleged links to a suspected suicide bomber named Selcuk, who had reportedly traveled on the same bus with him in Pakistan; however, Selcuk was never apprehended and resides in Germany. Additional accusations referenced Kurnaz’s acceptance of food and shelter from mosques associated with the Islamic missionary organization Jama'at al Tablighi. Based on these claims, the tribunal concluded that Kurnaz was a dangerous "enemy combatant" affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Legal Representation by an American Attorney

In October 2004, following two years of mistreatment and shortly after being designated an "enemy combatant," American attorney Professor Baher Azmy from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) obtained an opportunity to interview Kurnaz. Azmy brought with him a handwritten letter from Kurnaz’s mother, confirming that the family was informed and actively seeking his release. The CCR had been contacted by Kurnaz’s German defense team and appointed Azmy to handle the case. He also provided Kurnaz with media reports about his circumstances. Notably, Kurnaz was among the initial trio of detainees at Guantánamo permitted to have legal counsel.

Kurnaz relayed information from Azmy to fellow inmates, including updates on the US military campaign in Iraq, the establishment of a new Afghan government, and a US judge’s ruling that Guantánamo military commissions were unconstitutional. As a consequence of sharing these developments, guards punished him with a month-long confinement in Block India, recognized as the most severe disciplinary area. Nevertheless, Kurnaz treasured this link to external events, remarking, "We were connected to the world again! We knew what was happening outside Guantanamo!"

Habeas Corpus Litigation

Kurnaz’s attorney filed a legal challenge against his detention in a federal court located in Washington, D.C., submitting a writ of habeas corpus under the case name Murat Kurnaz v. George W. Bush in October 2004. His petition was one of nearly sixty cases reviewed by Judge Joyce Hens Green at the US Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit.

On 15 October 2004, the Department of Defense disclosed 32 pages of unclassified documents pertaining to his Combatant Status Review Tribunal. In 2005, due to an administrative oversight, Kurnaz’s complete file was declassified, enabling the Washington Post to report on the evidence presented against him. The documentation revealed that neither German authorities nor US Army investigators established any connections between Kurnaz and Al-Qaeda or terrorist acts and had recommended his release as early as 2002. Despite this, US officials continued to detain him at Guantánamo, subjecting him to ongoing interrogation and abuse until late summer 2006.

Prisoner Unrest and Inmate Fatalities

Kurnaz observed that prisoner uprisings were frequently provoked by US personnel desecrating the Quran rather than by routine mistreatment. Inmates retaliated by emptying toilet buckets over soldiers who had discarded the Quran on the ground. After General Geoffrey Miller arrived in late 2002, reports indicated an escalation in abuse; prisoners organized a protest by throwing excrement at Miller as he passed their cells, leading to his nickname "Mr. Toilet." This act resulted in harsher punishments such as extended solitary confinement and ration reductions for detainees.

Kurnaz accused US forces of poisoning three defiant prisoners after offering them baklava under deceptive circumstances. These individuals were discovered dead with injuries inconsistent with suicide; however, US officials maintained that suicide was the cause despite stringent searches preventing detainees from accessing pills.

Following another incident involving Quran desecration, Afghan detainees attacked guards using improvised weapons made from ceiling fan blades. While no soldiers were killed during this confrontation, three prisoners died under questionable conditions; authorities again attributed these deaths to suicide.

Throughout Kurnaz’s incarceration, Guantánamo officially reported only three inmate deaths—all suicides occurring on 20 June 2006 involving two Saudi nationals and one Yemeni detainee. A State Department spokesperson noted that some prisoners were unaware of impending transfers or releases. Human rights organizations and defense attorneys demanded thorough investigations into these fatalities.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service conducted an inquiry and published a heavily redacted report in 2008. Subsequently, in 2009, Seton Hall University Law School released a study accusing the Department of Defense of concealing homicides resulting from torture. Further allegations emerged in 2010 through collaborative reporting by Harper's Magazine and NBC News, which claimed military homicides occurred during torture sessions and efforts were made to cover up these deaths.

Release in 2006

Kurnaz credits his freedom primarily to diplomatic efforts by Germany, notably Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal intervention with President Bush. On 12 February 2006, Deutsche Welle reported that German officials were engaged in ongoing talks with the US concerning his return. According to the German publication Focus, the Bush administration proposed that Germany accept four additional Guantanamo detainees as part of the arrangement for Kurnaz’s release. Although approximately 120 detainees had been authorized for release, many faced obstacles returning to their countries of origin. Both the German and US governments denied any direct exchange involving Kurnaz’s release and acceptance of other detainees; Germany ultimately agreed to take in one detainee, while information about others remained limited.

Kurnaz was freed on 24 August 2006. His transfer resembled the conditions of his arrival at Guantanamo: a 17-hour flight during which he was restrained with shackles, fitted with a muzzle and opaque goggles, and wore sound-dampening ear-muffs, without receiving food or water.

Life in Germany after release

Following his release, Kurnaz authored his memoir Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo (2007), which has been translated into several European languages and subsequently published in English and Polish editions. The British novelist John le Carré commended the book as a heartfelt and sincere portrayal of life inside Guantanamo.

Kurnaz contributed to a 2007 German government inquiry investigating allegations that German soldiers mistreated him during interrogations in Kandahar. He identified members of the military’s KSK unit from photographs, challenging initial denials from the Ministry of Defense regarding their involvement. By May 2007, the authorities acknowledged KSK personnel had participated but discontinued the investigation while admitting that abuse might have occurred.

In the same year, a German Parliamentary committee scrutinized Germany’s role in the US extraordinary rendition program. In 2008, Kurnaz provided testimony via videoconference at a US Congressional hearing focused on Guantanamo.

On 15 June 2008, the McClatchy News Service published interviews with former detainees including Kurnaz, who disclosed that he resides with his parents in Germany and holds an office position he finds fulfilling. He explicitly stated that he does not hold ordinary Americans responsible for his treatment.

Memoir editions

  • (German) Murat Kurnaz: Fünf Jahre meines Lebens. Ein Bericht aus Guantánamo (Five Years of My Life: A Report from Guantánamo). Rowohlt, Berlin, April 2007.
  • (French) Murat Kurnaz: Dans l'enfer de Guantanamo (In the Hell of Guantanamo). Paris: Fayard, 2007.
  • (Norwegian) Murat Kurnaz: Fem år av mitt liv : en beretning fra Guantanamo. Oslo, 2007.
  • (Danish) Fem år af mit liv: En beretning fra Guantánamo af Murat Kurnaz. Klim, 2007.
  • (English) Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo, Palgrave Macmillan, April 2008.
  • (Dutch) Murat Kurnaz: In de hel van Guantánamo, Forum, 270p.
  • (Polish) Murat Kurnaz: Guantanamo: pięć lat z mojego życia. Wydawnictwo W.A.B., 2008.

See also

External links

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