Date Posted: Tuesday, December 13, 2005

An investigation by a European rights group concluded there was credible evidence that the CIA ran a network of secret prisons in Europe and flew terrorist suspects to and from them.

PARIS, Dec 13 (MASNET & News Agencies) - The Central Intelligence Agency appears to have abducted people in Europe and illegally transferred them to other countries, according to the results of a Council of Europe investigation.

"Legal proceedings under way in certain countries appear to show that individuals were abducted and transferred to other countries without respect for any legal assistance procedures," Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty told a meeting of the body's human rights committee on Tuesday, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The Swiss senator said the results of a month-long investigation lent credibility to reports that the CIA ran a network of secret prisons in Europe and flew terrorist suspects to and from them, actions that would breach the continent's human rights principles.

"The elements we have gathered so far tend to reinforce the credibility of the allegations concerning the transport and temporary detention of detainees - outside all judicial procedure - in European countries," he said.

Marty told a news conference he believed the United States was no longer holding prisoners clandestinely in Europe and he believed they were moved to North Africa in early November, when reports about secret U.S. prisons first emerged in the Washington Post. He did not provide any other details, reports the Associated Press (AP).

"Based on what I have been able to learn, currently there are no secret detainees held by the United States in Europe," Marty said, adding that he believed prisoners had been taken to Morocco.

Marty criticized the United States for failing to formally come clean over the allegations, reports Reuters.

He said he "deplores the fact that no information or explanations" were provided by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who faced repeated questions about the CIA prison allegations on her recent visit to Europe, reports the AP.

Rice has said the United States acts within the law and argued that Europeans are safer because of tough U.S. tactics, but she refused to discuss intelligence operations or address questions about clandestine CIA detention centers, the news agency reports.

But he said his main mandate was to look into the actions of European states and that it was hard to believe that certain governments and secret services in Europe had not cooperated with the CIA - in breach of their human rights obligations, reports Reuters.

"I find it hard to believe these actions could have taken place without a degree of collaboration or passivity by governments or services operating under them. I am thinking of the secret services," said Marty.

It was possible, he added, that the secret services had not informed their governments of any cooperation with the CIA, reports Reuters.

But Marty added it is "still too early to assert that there had been any involvement or complicity of member states in illegal actions."

Marty said in the statement that his findings justified continuing an in-depth inquiry, but he declined to give any details at a news conference, reports Reuters.

The rapporteur "demands immediately that all member governments fully commit to uncovering the truth about flights and overflights on their territory in recent years, by aircraft transporting people arrested and detained outside of any legal procedure."

He urged all member governments to cooperate fully with the investigation, adding that not all - including his home country Switzerland - appeared to be doing so.

The Council of Europe has set governments a three-month deadline to reveal what they know about the mystery flights and about the Post report saying the Central Intelligence Agency ran secret prisons in Eastern Europe, reports Reuters.

Marty's comments were released in an official statement from the 46-nation pan-European rights watchdog.

Claims have been mounting that the United States has been illegally using European airports and airspace to transport terror suspects as part of what the Central Intelligence Agency calls "extraordinary renditions."

Pressure is growing on Washington and European governments to explain dozens of flights criss-crossing the continent by CIA planes, some suspected of delivering prisoners to jails in third countries where they may have been mistreated or tortured, reports Reuters.

The European Union and at least eight member states said last month they were seeking answers from the United States over the use of bases on the continent for secret prisoner transfers, the news agency reports.