CIA extraordinary rendition: "Net is tightening" for EU governments.

6.19.50pm GMT Wed 5th Apr 2006

Following today's publication of an Amnesty International report which provides further details of CIA "torture flights", Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, vice-chair of the European Parliament committee on extraordinary rendition has warned EU governments that the "net is tightening." She said:

"The British government's spectacular volte-face in now agreeing to act for Bisher al-Rawi, a constituent of mine rendered to Guantanamo Bay, is a tacit admission of their complicity in his case. It seems clear that several European governments must have been at least passively, and some actively, involved in kidnapping, secret detention and torture."

Amnesty's report comes as MEPs from the committee prepare to visit Macedonia to investigate the case of Khaled al-Masri, a German citizen abducted by the CIA whilst on holiday there, and transported to face torture in Afghanistan. The report reveals that the plane used to transport Mr al-Masri (Boeing 737-7ET number N313P-N4476S) made 192 landings at airports in 11 different EU countries between November 2002 and September 2005.

Sarah Ludford, who will take part in a fact-finding mission to Washington in May, added:

"The burden of proof has shifted. EU member, candidate and associate state governments must now answer the charge that they colluded with gross contraventions of their human rights obligations."