CNN.Com Friend: Berg says he was in US custody

Friend: Berg said he was in U.S. custody
Thursday, May 13, 2004 Posted: 10:40 AM EDT (1440 GMT)



A photo of Berg is taped to a neighbor's mailbox in front of his Pennsylvania home.
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Americans are outraged over Nick Berg's death, but none more so than those who knew him.

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The grisly execution of Nicholas Berg prompts outrage and brings vows to hunt down the hooded killers responsible.

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A portion of the video shows Berg and his killers speaking to the camera. NOTE: The slaying is not shown.

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Slain American Nicholas Berg told a friend that he had been arrested by Iraqi police, detained briefly, and then handed over to U.S. troops who held him in a coalition facility for almost two weeks, the friend said.

Chilean freelance journalist Hugo Infante told CNN that weeks before the videotape of Berg's grisly death emerged on the Internet, "Nick told me, 'Iraqi police caught me one night, they saw my passport and my Jewish last name and my Israeli stamp. This guy thought I was a spy so they put me with American soldiers and American soldiers put me in a jail for two weeks.'"

Infante stays at the $30-a-night Al Fanar Hotel, where Berg was staying, and regularly chatted and shared drinks with him.

Infante said Berg told him that Iraqi police were suspicious of the electronics equipment he was carrying for his work on radio communications towers when he was arrested in Mosul.

Infante's comments about Berg's whereabouts during that time period echo those made by Berg's family.

Infante's statements come a day after coalition authorities in Baghdad denied they had held Berg between March 24 and April 6, saying that he was in sole custody of Iraqi police. (Full story)


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