'CIA prisons in Asia, Africa'

2006-05-17 20:41

Strasbourg - Since 2001, the United States central intelligence agency (CIA) has sent up to 50 suspects to countries where they could face torture.

A European Union investigator probing the CIA's actions in Europe, Claudio Fava, said members of his team were given the information by US intelligence officials during a visit to the country last week.

The sources had also said the agency ran secret prisons in Europe, Asia and Africa.

The US has come under intense fire over the past year, following press reports that the CIA has flown suspects in the US "war on terror" across European airspace since the September 11 2001, attacks.

The prisoners were taken mostly through Europe to third countries. This process is known as "rendition", in which the transfers take place outside the legal framework of an extradition agreement.

Fava, an Italian member of the European Parliament, said: "More than one source in the CIA, senior officials, explained to us that there were 30 to 50 renditions, not including people arrested and taken to Guantanamo Bay."

'The renditions were acceptable'

He could not say whether the suspects had been picked up in Europe, were flown through the continent's airspace or transported through its territory, or if any were of European origin.

Fava said the intelligence officials had said the renditions were acceptable in that they were part of the "war on terror".

Senior US officials have acknowledged that a few renditions have taken place.

Fava said the officials were asked about the secret prisons in Europe - in particular facilities, now thought closed, in Poland and Romania - and that "they told us there were prisons in Europe, Asia and Africa".

Fava also accused the White House of putting pressure on the US media not to make the names of countries suspected of allowing secret CIA prisons on their territory public.

The head of the inquiry, Portuguese lawmaker Carlos Coelho, said information gathered in the US showed that the "transfer programme would not have been possible without the help of European governments".

- AFP