INTERVIEW-EU assembly must reopen "rendition" inquiry
22 Feb 2008 17:57:40 GMT Source: Reuters
(Adds Amnesty call for investigations, paragraphs 5-6) By Phil Stewart ROME, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The European Parliament must reopen its inquiry into secret CIA transfers of terrorism suspects in Europe after Britain's admission that the United States used its territory in the so-called renditions, an EU lawmaker said. Britain, after maintaining for years it was unaware of a British link to such flights, said on Thursday Washington had now told it two planes with detainees refuelled at a U.S. base on the British island of Diego Garcia in 2002. Claudio Fava, who authored a highly critical European Parliament report on CIA secret flights and prisons last year, said follow-up was necessary. "Yesterday's revelations confirm that the European Parliament has a moral duty to continue its inquiry," Fava told Reuters in Rome. "... We still don't know everything that we have the right to know about this issue." Amnesty International called on European countries to fully investigate possible involvement in renditions. "They must also take immediate steps to ensure that the practice of rendition is not allowed to happen again," said Claudio Cordone, senior director at the rights group. EU lawmakers approved in February last year Fava's report accusing European governments and services of accepting and concealing secret U.S. flights of terrorism suspects. Critics said it had brought no conclusive proof. Fava said his attempts to follow-up on his report and reopen the investigation have been resisted by some European lawmakers and governments, including Portugal, Germany and Britain. "Some delegations, some states, some (EU) members, some governments, don't want the European Parliament to resume investigations ... into an episode they would prefer to simply forget," said Fava, an Italian socialist lawmaker. Italy is home to one of the best documented cases of what prosecutors believe was CIA rendition. Twenty-six Americans -- nearly all believed to be CIA agents -- are being tried in absentia in Milan on charges of kidnapping a terrorism suspect in Italy's financial capital in 2003 and secretly flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. Italian spies, including the former head of Italy's military intelligence agency, are also being tried for helping the CIA. Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro, leading the Milan case, said the British statement highlighted the need for clarity. "It seems to me that the admissions by the British government are important, independent of the level of political responsibility," he told Reuters. "Today, what we need is clarity, so that it doesn't happen again. Because it (involvement in secret flights) is a conduct that absolutely does not further the war on terrorism." The Milan trial is due to resume on March 12, but the Italian state has accused the Milan prosecutors of violating state secrecy rules when building their case, and the matter is in dispute before Italy's high court. (Additional reporting by Adrian Croft in London; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Alison Williams)
