ANKARA - The mother of a German-born Turkish man held without trial in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay said Sunday there were indications that her son might have been brought to Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported.
Murat Kurnaz, 23, who lived in Germany, was arrested in Pakistan in 2002.
"We do not have definite information yet, but my son Murat might have been brought to Turkey," Rabia Kurnaz told Anatolia from the northwestern city of Adapazari.
She said she was told by a Turkish official that a Turk whose identity was not disclosed was flown from Guantanamo to the Incirlik military base in southern Turkey on a US plane on Saturday.
Police officials in Adana province, where Incirlik is located, told Anatolia they were aware that a Turk would be flown to the base, but said no one had so far been turned over to them.
A German lawyer for Kurnaz said last October he was confident of securing his client's release on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
The US authorities reportedly believed that Kurnaz's travelling companion, who was originally to accompany him to Pakistan, was a future suicide bomber.
The man eventually never flew to Pakistan because of outstanding fines.
US investigators have also accused Kurnaz of being an Islamist "fighter" with links to Al-Qaeda, which he denies.
His lawyers argued he never fought, possessed no weapons and never went to Afghanistan.
Rabia Kurnaz said her son was a pious person and went to Pakistan for Koranic studies.
"But he had no links to any organization," she said.
According to his lawyers, Kurnaz was also sexually humiliated by female interrogators at the controversial prison in Cuba.
03/13/2005 20:48 GMT