A German man is suing the CIA's former director, saying he was illegally detained by the CIA and covertly flown to Afghanistan to be jailed and tortured.

Khaled al-Masri, 42, says he was abducted while on holiday in Macedonia after being mistakenly identified as a suspect in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

He alleges he was then taken to Afghanistan, where he was drugged and beaten while being held captive in a secret CIA prison. The allegations have not been proved in court.

The lawsuit on behalf of al-Masri was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in U.S. Federal Court in Virginia on Tuesday.

The rights group said it was the first legal challenge to the Central Intelligence Agency's controversial "extraordinary rendition" program, which transfers suspects without any court approval to a third country where they could be questioned and possibly tortured.

Al-Masri's lawsuit says his human rights and rights to due process were violated and that he was subjected to abuse and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

It names former CIA director George Tenet and 10 employees, among others. Al-Masri is asking for an official apology from the U.S. government and from Tenet, as well as thousands of dollars in compensation.

The rights group announced the lawsuit at a news conference in Virginia on Tuesday. Al-Masri was forced to participate via a video link from Germany after being turned back by U.S. border officials when he tried to enter the country on Saturday.

Ordeal began on holiday to Macedonia

Al-Masri, a Lebanese-born father of five who moved to Germany in 1982, said his nightmare began on New Year's Eve 2003 when he hopped a bus to Macedonia looking for a cheap holiday.

He said border guards arrested him and incarcerated him for more than three weeks before he was flown to Afghanistan, blindfolded and tethered to the plane.

"I don't think that I am the human being or man I used to be," al-Masri said through a translator.

"I was beaten down and my clothes were torn off with sharp objects when they dragged me into the airplane. I got injections with drugs."

In Afghanistan, he said he was put in a CIA-run facility north of Kabul and grilled by interrogators that he says had American accents, who insisted his passport was a forgery.

Al-Masri said they repeatedly questioned him about his home, friends and mosque as well as asking how well he knew the ringleader of the 9/11 attacks, Mohammed Atta.

"I was handcuffed and blindfolded and when the door was closed, I was beaten from all sides," he said. "Then I was humiliated and I could hear that it was being photographed when I was completely naked."

CIA held me two months after realizing mistake: al-Masri

He alleges in the lawsuit that Tenet, who was then director of the CIA, was told that al-Masri's case stemmed from a mistaken identity, and that his passport was found to be valid.

Yet he wasn't released for two months, when he was dumped on a deserted road in Albania, al-Masri says.

The lawsuit was announced as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel amid growing European controversy over an alleged network of secret CIA prisons. Merkel said the United States had admitted it made a mistake in al-Masri's case.

"I did say to the chancellor when and if mistakes are made, we will work very hard and as quickly as possible to rectify them," Rice later told reporters.

ACLU says government is ignoring American values

Critics say al-Masri's story, like that of Canadian Maher Arar, is an example that shows the United States is getting other countries to do its dirty work in its so-called "war on terror."

The American Civil Liberties Union officials said they filed the lawsuit on al-Masri's behalf as a broader challenge because they believe as many as 150 people are being similarly held and tortured at the CIA's request.

"We regret that we have to bring this lawsuit to force our government to live up to American values," said Anthony Romero, director of the American Civil Liberties Union.