Parliament launches CIA secret prisons probe

Date: 26/01/06

The European Parliament will today (26 January) launch an investigation into claims that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe and flew terror suspects via EU member states to countries where they were tortured.

MEPs sitting on the temporary committee of inquiry believe they will be more successful in gathering concrete evidence than Dick Marty, the Swiss senator, who is conducting a separate inquiry for the 46-nation Council of Europe.

Marty's interim report, published on Tuesday (24 January), said there was "no formal, irrefutable evidence" that the CIA had established prison camps in Poland and Romania but that indications of their existence "must be considered reliable".

He also complained that the US and some European governments were not co-operating with his investigations.

MEPs sitting on a temporary committee of inquiry were nonetheless hopeful that they will have more success in getting information from the relevant authorities. Portuguese conservative Carlos Coelho is expected to be appointed the committee's chairman at its inaugural meeting today.

The committee will not have any legal powers to insist that witnesses give evidence. Dutch Liberal Sophia in 't Veld said, however, that the Parliament should be able to exert significant political pressure. "If we invite a government to send a minister over to the hearing and they refuse, then that would be sending a very strong political signal," she added. "It would be almost as if they are saying that they have got something to hide."

The German Christian Democrat Ewa Klamt said that governments had to realise "there are certain things we do not accept in the EU".

One Parliamentary insider said the idea of censuring Poland for allegedly breaching the EU treaty had been discussed informally by some MEPs. Under Article 7 of the treaty, member states can vote, by qualified majority, to sanction an EU government which is in breach of its human rights obligations. The treaty states that the Union is based on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.

But Claude Moraes, a British Labour deputy, pointed out that several countries had been implicated in the alleged CIA-run prisons. An "even-handed" approach should be taken, he added.

Marty's report suggested that more than 100 terror suspects may have been transferred from Europe to countries where they faced torture or ill-treatment over the past few years.

Franco Frattini, the European commissioner for justice, freedom and security, urged the member states and the candidate countries to "co-operate fully with the Council of Europe's investigations as promptly and as comprehensively s possible".

During a visit to Brussels this week, Elaine Dezenski, the assistant secretary for policy development at the US Department of Homeland Security, declined to comment on Marty's interim conclusions.

Article anticipates the launching of an investigation at the European Parliament into claims that the CIA ran secret prisons in Europe and flew terror suspects via EU member states to countries where they were tortured, 26 January 2006. In a separate inquiry for the 46-nation Council of Europe an interim report, published on 24 January 2006, said that there was 'no formal, irrefutable evidence' that the CIA had established prison camps in Poland and Romania but that indications of their existence 'must be considered reliable'.

• Primary Source

European Parliament: Temporary committee of inquiry: Alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal detention of prisoners (TDIP) http://europarl.europa.eu/activities/expert/committees/presentation.do?committee=2073&language=EN

---