UK singled out on EU 'torture flights'

The European parliament has condemned member states which turn a blind eye to US flights transporting prisoners for torture.

It backed a report stating that so-called rendition flights by the CIA do exist and singled out the UK for colluding with the CIA in the transport of prisoners.

The flights, which the European Parliament branded "an illegal instrument used by the US in the fight against terrorism", transport alleged terrorists to countries not bound by any human rights code for interrogation.

The report, which follows a year-long inquiry said more than 1,000 secret CIA flights have flown into European airspace or stopped over at European airports since the 9/11 terror attacks.

It added that individual European governments accepted and concealed the practice.

The UK Government is named as sending three UK residents on rendition fights for questioning in connection with alleged terrorism.

And the report expresses "outrage" at a legal opinion provided by a former legal advisor to the Foreign Office, who said that "receiving or possessing" information extracted under torture was not in itself against international conventions banning torture, "in so far as there is no direct participation in the torture".

The report also singles out Germany and Ireland as being most likely to allow rendition flights to use their airports or airspace.

London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford said evidence given to the inquiry suggested that several EU governments either colluded actively with the CIA's rendition operations, or simply "turned a blind eye" to them.

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