EU states complicit in 'outsourced' CIA torture flights

It is “highly likely” European governments were aware torture “outsourced” by the US from EU soil, Europe’s human rights watchdog declared on Tuesday.

In an interim report the Council of Europe's warns of “a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of relocation or outsourcing of torture”.

Lead by Swiss senator Dick Marty, the investigation focuses on allegations that governments have hosted illegal US detention centres or flights on European soil.

“It has been proved – and in fact never denied – that individuals have been abducted, deprived of their liberty and transported […] in Europe, to be handed over to countries in which they have suffered […] torture,” Marty said. 

Domestic action

The 46 nation COE – a non-EU body with human rights powers - hopes Tuesday’s findings will compel governments to open up about what they knew about the US practise of “extraordinary rendition”.

Its report goes some way to widen the gap between information on CIA activity provided by EU member states and the cumulative evidence mounting against them.

“Suspected terrorists have been taken across EU, stripped of all rights and taken to countries where they have no guarantee of basic human rights,” Marty said. “Is it possible that no one in Europe knew anything about this?”

But Marty’s investigation has, as yet, found no evidence that either Poland or Romania hosted illegal CIA detention centres on their territory.

Parliamentary support

Claude Moraes MEP is a member of a special European parliament’s committee set up to investigate the CIA claims on behalf of the EU.

He argues that Marty’s interim assessment shows that EU member states now have a clear case to answer.

“Dick Marty has used carefully couched legal language to urge member states to come clean,” Moraes told EUpolitix.com.

“The timing is perfect for the European parliament’s temporary committee to take the baton and look further into these questions.”

Hard evidence

But critics accuse Marty of failing to produce sufficient irrefutable evidence, particularly on the question of CIA detention centres.

They point to the fact that the footnotes of Marty’s memorandum cite largely journalistic and circumstantial evidence.

“At this stage of the investigation, there is no formal, irrefutable evidence of the existence of secret CIA detention centres in Romania, Poland or any other country,” the COE memorandum stresses.

“Nevertheless, there are many indications from various sources which must be considered reliable, justifying the continuation of the analytical and investigative work.”

Further investigative work is likely to focus on detailed information from Europe’s air traffic agency, Eurocontrol.

The Swiss senator received flight logs on Monday and he told reporters he will only be able to comment on their relevance after further analysis.

Executive endorsement

European commission Vice-President Franco Frattini, responsible for EU human rights enforcement, has given a positive response to the Marty report.

“The comprehensiveness of the document obviously requires us to carefully study and analyse the document, which will happen in the days to come,” he said in a statement.

“The European commission will not draw any conclusions or issue any judgments at this point, or speculate on actions to be possibly taken at this point in time, as we are still in the process of establishing facts.”

Frattini is urging governments to “cooperate fully with… investigations as promptly, and comprehensively as possible so that the important process of establishing the facts, in which phase we are still now, can be completed as soon as possible”.

“We have take note of the serious interim conclusion that ‘it is highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware,” he said.

“It is now for the member states of the Council of Europe to clarify their position in this regard, and in this context the vice-president firmly calls upon the member states of the EU to cooperate fully with… investigations as promptly, and comprehensively.”

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