Gholam Ghaus Z. was a German citizen wrongly imprisoned for over four months in the

Bagram Theater Internment Facility The Parwan Detention Facility (also called Detention Facility in Parwan or Bagram prison) is Afghanistan's main military prison. Situated next to the Bagram Air Base in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan, the prison was built by the U.S. during t ...

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. According to ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' Gholam Z. is of Afghan background and was arrested when visiting Afghan relatives. According to

Deutsche Welle Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave" in English), abbreviated to DW, is a German public, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the German federal tax budget. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite television service con ...

he is from the German city of

Wuppertal Wuppertal (; "''Wupper Dale''") is, with a population of approximately 355,000, the seventh-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as the 17th-largest city of Germany. It was founded in 1929 by the merger of the cities and to ...

. ''Der Spiegel'' reports that the 41-year-old Gholam Z. had taken early retirement, due to medical problems. A second ''Der Spiegel'' report states that his Kabul relatives told him that, as a German citizen, he could shop in the supermarket in the American base in Kabul without any problems: It reported that German security officials who investigated his background in Germany, and who interviewed him in Afghanistan, were satisfied that there was no evidence of any tie to terrorism. Nevertheless, the USA told German officials that he could not be released unless Germany provided assurances of measures that amounted to "round the clock surveillance". ''Der Spiegel'' reported that the USA had been holding Gholam Ghaus Z. for approximately four months, and that his continued detention had been putting a strain on the relationship between Germany and the USA. ''Der Spiegel'' compared his detention to that of

Murat Kurnaz Murat Kurnaz (born 19 March 1982) is a Turkish citizen and legal resident of Germany who was held in extrajudicial detention by the United States at its military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan and in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp at Guantanam ...

. After talks with

United States Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

Condoleezza Rice Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...

German Foreign Minister , insignia = Bundesadler Bundesorgane.svg , insigniasize = 80px , insigniacaption = , department = Federal Foreign Office , image = Annalena Baerbock (cropped, 2).jpg , alt = , incumbent = Annalena Baerbock , incumbentsince = 8 December ...

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician serving as President of Germany since 19 March 2017. He was previously Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as Vice Chan ...

stated: On 2008-05-31, Der Spiegel reports that Gholam Ghaus Z. finally was released and brought to Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Z., Gholam Ghaus German extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Bagram Theater Internment Facility detainees Living people People from Wuppertal German people of Afghan descent Year of birth missing (living people)

See also

References