EU probe pursues Romania CIA claims

MEPs have called for Romanian denials of involvement in illegal CIA activities on EU soil to be re-examined.

Vice chair of the European parliament’s committee investigating allegations of illegal CIA abductions, Sarah Ludford, said there were grounds for further investigation.

"The senate enquiry's preliminary conclusions, which were categorical in dismissing any possibility that detainees could have been held in Romania or transported on flights using Romanian airports, need re-examination,” she said in a statement on Thursday.

Her comments follow a trip to Romania by a delegation of MEPs investigating claims that the country played host to secret CIA prisons.

Bucharest has denied the existence of any illegal prisons – but has not ruled out the possibility that US flights stopped in the country to refuel.

“There were no CIA detention centers on Romania's territory," Romanian senator Norica Nicolai who led the country's investigation said.

The senator's June report found that all the flights that stopped in Romania did not do so to drop off suspects.

"No passengers got off the planes onto Romanian soil and no foreign people from Romania entered the planes," Nicolai added.

But after their three day visit to Romania, MEPs argue the case must not be closed.

"I urge senator Nicolai…to look again at elements such as the comments of former defence minister Pascu that parts of one airport were 'off-limits' to Romanians,” Ludford insisted.

The British liberal MEP said the case of the 'Gulfstream 4' which crash-landed in December 2004 after failing to file a flight plan with Eurocontrol was particularly worrying.

She added that US president Bush’s acknowledgement of secret prisons had also fuelled suspicion.

"Pursuing the truth about what may have happened in the past in the context of close US-Romania ties can only reinforce Romania's European credentials now," she said.

The European parliament investigation will run until January.

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