The lawsuit by Lebanese-born Khaled El-Masri charges former CIA director George Tenet and three US-based aviation companies with breaking US and international law, drawing attention to highly disputed US practices in the fight against terrorism.
At a hearing Friday, the US government asked District Judge Thomas S. Ellis III to throw out the case, arguing that a trial would risk exposing state secrets. Ellis said he would rule soon on whether the case should go ahead.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a human rights group representing El-Masri, called the government's secrecy argument 'very dubious' because his allegations have been widely reported.
'That argument adds insult to injury,' ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner, who argued El-Masri's case at Friday's hearing, told reporters in a conference call after the hearing in Alexandria, Virginia.
El-Masri alleges he was seized in Macedonia in December 2003 and handed over to US officials, who brought him to Afghanistan as a terror suspect and mistreated him during five months of detention.
He says he was released without explanation in May 2004 in Albania and wants an apology from the CIA. His lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, said he may also seek compensation.
The suit filed by the ACLU argues that El-Masri is innocent and was held for two months after Tenet was informed that his capture was a mistake.
'I want this cleared up, I want to know why they did this to me,' El-Masri said from Ulm, Germany, in the conference call. 'They need to acknowledged their mistake and offer an apology.'
There have been several reports of so-called renditions - capturing terror suspects and taking them to a third country - and torture in the US-declared war on terrorism.
A Washington Post report last year that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operates secret prisons abroad, including in Eastern Europe, has touched off investigations by the European Parliament, the German parliament and a German prosecutor.
The ACLU argues that the wide publicity about El-Masri's case undercuts the CIA's contention that official secrets could be exposed and US national security endangered.
'Khaled El-Masri is the public face of the US rendition programme. His nightmare ordeal is known throughout the entire world,' Wizner said.
El-Masri's case is part of the European Parliament inquiry, and EU lawmakers who quizzed top Macedonian officials on the case said this month that the government failed to resolve questions about its role in the case.
Macedonia, which is negotiating EU membership and is a US military ally in Iraq, has denied wrongdoing. The government says El-Masri was held at the Kosovo border, but released a few hours later, European lawmakers said.
Data from Europe's air traffic control agency, Eurocontrol, shows that the CIA operate more than 1,000 flights in Europe since 2001, a European Parliament report said this month.
