Police say UK airports are not guilty of 'rendition'

Published on Saturday 9 June 2007 00:29

A POLICE investigation has found no evidence that UK airports have been used to move CIA detainees facing torture.

The probe examined a complaint by the human rights group Liberty that "extraordinary rendition" flights landed on British soil.

But yesterday the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), which carried out the investigation, said "no evidence had been found to support the claims".

But the new findings contradict a report published by the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, yesterday.

Dick Marty, a Swiss senator investigating CIA operations on behalf of the body, claims to have evidence to prove the CIA ran secret jails in Poland and Romania to interrogate "war on terror" suspects.

Liberty activists had claimed CIA flights had entered Britain 210 times since 2001. They said the jets were carrying suspected terrorists to countries where they may have faced torture.

The Chief Constable of Greater Manchester, Michael Todd, agreed on behalf of Acpo to investigate whether UK law had been breached. And as the inquiry was concluded, an Acpo spokeswoman confirmed: "Mr Todd has now examined all the information available relating to this issue and has concluded there is no evidence to substantiate Liberty's allegations."

She added: "There was no evidence that UK airports were used to transport people by the CIA for torture in other countries. There was nothing to substantiate the claims in the evidence supplied by Liberty."

Last night Shami Chakrabart, Liberty's director reacted with fury and accused Acpo of "spin".

She insisted Liberty's complaint was "based upon credible investigations that Britain had been used as a staging post".

"When politicians spin it is disappointing. When police engage in the same activity it is rather more dangerous," she added.

It had been reported in 2005 that airports at Biggin Hill, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brize Norton, Farnborough, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, RAF Mildenhall, Northolt, and Stansted had allowed CIA or CIA-chartered jets to land.

The Council of Europe report into so-called "rendition" flights, identifies covert CIA detention centres in Poland and Romania between 2002 and 2005.

It identifies the UK as one of 14 European countries which colluded with the CIA in the operation of the secret flights.

It was claimed more than 100 people had been sent to the so-called "black sites" since they were set up after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on America.

Mr Marty said it was clear, despite a lack of "firm evidence", that the authorities in several European countries "actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities".

The results of the 19-month inquiry were described as "shocking" by Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly President Rene van der Linden. He said: "I don't know which is more shocking - that European governments have been complicit in these activities, violating their legal obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, or that they have used anti-democratic methods to conceal their actions and frustrate parliamentary and judicial investigations."

Polish foreign ministry spokesman Robert Szaniawski said Marty did not offer "any concrete proof". "There were no secret prisons in Poland," he said.

In Romania, the foreign office expressed regret that Marty "estimates that there were secret prisons in Romania".