Germany probes two in ex-Guantantamo inmate abuse case

BERLIN, Jan 8 (Reuters) Germany is investigating two special forces soldiers accused of assaulting a Turkish man while he was held in Afghanistan in 2002, prosecutors said today.

Murat Kurnaz, who has German residency, was sent from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terrorism suspects where he spent nearly five years before his release in August.

He says two German soldiers pulled his hair and slammed his head on the ground during his detention in Afghanistan.

An ongoing investigation, which had focused on 14 special forces soldiers who could have had contact with Kurnaz, has been narrowed down to two men, said state prosecutors in the southern German town of Tuebingen.

They said they were investigating one soldier whom Kurnaz had identified through photographs and another who was on duty with him.

''Both suspects are accused of grevious bodily harm while on duty,'' said the prosecutors in a statement, adding that the investigations were continuing.

Kurnaz, born in Germany in 1982, was in the process of becoming a German citizen when he was arrested in Pakistan in late 2001.

He says he also suffered abuse at Guantanamo Bay, where the United States has held suspects indefinitely without charge.

The Kurnaz case is an embarrassment in Germany which also faces allegations that the previous government secretly aided a US programme to kidnap and fly terrorism suspects to third countries for interrogation.

REUTERS AB BST1718