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EU opens probe on CIA jails

BRUSSELS: The Council of Europe has opened an investigation into reports of secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) detention centres in Romania and Poland, a European Commission spokesman said on Tuesday.

“We understand that the Legal Affairs Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly has appointed its chairperson, Dick Marty,” said Friso Roscam-Abbing, justice and home affairs spokesman for the EU executive.

The decision follows a Washington Post report earlier this month, which said that the US intelligence agency has been hiding and interrogating Al Qaeda captives at secret facilities in Eastern Europe. The detention centres are part of a covert global prison system that included sites in eight countries and was set up after the September 11 attacks, the Washington Post said.

Marty, who is Swiss, will look into the allegations “with a view to a possible urgent debate” on November 25 in Bucharest, the Council of Europe said on its website. The Human Rights Watch has identified Romania and Poland as two countries possibly operating such jails, but Roscam-Abbing said last week that both countries had assured the European Commission that there are no CIA jails on their territory. In any event, the EU executive lacks the authority to investigate such allegations, he said on Tuesday.

But the Council of Europe, which has no institutional relationship with the EU, does have the authority. reuters

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