Council of Europe rapporteur says CIA abduction claim "credible"

Tuesday, December 13, 2005 Swiss member of parliament Dick Marty, the Council of Europe's rapporteur of the probe investigating whether secret CIA detention centers existed in Europe, has said that the information gathered so far "reinforced the credibility" of allegations that the United States secretly transferred detainees through Europe and held them there at such centers.

In a report presented to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in Paris today Marty also stated that it is too early to tell whether there has been "any involvement or complicity of member states in illegal actions" but added that if any European country was involved it would "stand accused of having seriously breached their human rights obligations to the Council of Europe".

Marty urged the U.S. government to officially deny or confirm the allegations, which it has, according to him, thus far refused.

At a press conference later in the day Marty said that regardless of whether the U.S. operated secret detention centers in past he doesn't believe that it would be holding prisoners there today.

Poland and Romania, named by Human Rights Watch as countries hosting such centers, have denied any involvement.

Sources

Dick Marty. "Alleged existence of secret detention centres in Council of Europe member states" — Council of Europe, December 13, 2005

"Probe backs CIA prison allegations" — CNN, December 13, 2005

"CIA abduction claims 'credible'" — BBC News Online, December 13, 2005

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