21 Feb 2008

Liberty today called for a full inquiry into UK complicity with US extraordinary rendition flights in which kidnapped suspects are taken to third countries where they may face torture.

Liberty expressed grave concern that Foreign Secretary David Milliband has only now been informed by the US Government that two secret CIA flights transited the British territory of Diego Garcia in 2002, despite recent UK Government reassurances it has not been complicit in “torture flights.”

Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said:

“It is far too easy for our Government to blame the Americans for lack of information, particularly as Liberty has been asking the Foreign Office to investigate US torture flights for more than two years.”

“Torture is so counter-productive and immoral that international law makes mere complicity with it illegal. We need watertight guarantees from the Government that the UK will never look the other way again.”

Liberty first expressed concerns in November 2005 that the UK Government may be complicit in alleged torture practices if secret “torture flights,” carrying suspects to third countries where they may face torture had transited UK airports. In a dossier of correspondence between the human rights group and the Foreign Office, two successive Foreign Secretaries stressed that no such flights had received UK logistical support.

Liberty also asked the Association of Chief Police Officers in 2005 to conduct a police inquiry into allegations of UK complicity with extraordinary rendition flights, which was closed by ACPO in June 2007. The human rights group questioned whether ACPO had actually investigated the allegations.

Contact: Jen Corlew on 0207 378 3656 or 0797 3 831 128


NOTES TO EDITORS

1. On 8 June 2007, the Council of Europe released the findings of its 19-month investigation into extraordinary rendition flights which confirmed that European authorities were aware of illegal activity on their territory and that US military flights were given “overflight clearance.”

2. In February 2007 the European Parliament’s temporary commission on extraordinary rendition approved a report accusing EU states of complicity with CIA rendition flights.

3. On 6 September 2006 US President Bush acknowledged the existence of secret CIA prisons and said 14 key terrorist suspects have now been sent from the prisons to Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

4. On 26 June 2006 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution calling on all member states, including the UK, to pressure the US into ending rendition flights, closing secret prisons and changing their own laws and practices to guarantee the rights of persons captured from, detained in or transported through their states. Eighteen members of the UK Parliament from all the main political parties are on the PACE.

5. On 7 June 2006 the Council of Europe released preliminary findings concluding that CIA flights carrying terror suspects to places where they are likely to face torture have been given access to UK airspace and airports.

6. On 26 May 2006, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights concluded that the Government was not doing enough to investigate whether UK airports are being used by secret CIA flights involved in the practice of extraordinary rendition.

7. On 30 November 2005, Liberty called on the Police Chief Constables of Bedfordshire, Dorset, Essex, Hampshire, the Metropolitan Police, the Ministry of Defence Police, Suffolk, Sussex, Thames Valley, and West Midlands to conduct an investigation into whether the airports in their regions were being used to transport suspects to countries known to practice torture.

8. Liberty also alerted the-then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in November 2005 and later Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett of its fears that the UK would be in breach of domestic and international law by allowing CIA “extraordinary rendition” flights to land and re-fuel in Britain.

9. Liberty has called on the Government to support an amendment which would require the Secretary of State to force any suspicious aircraft in UK airspace to land and that would require the plane to be searched.

10. Investigative journalist Stephen Grey’s book, “Ghost Planes,” explores allegations of European complicity with extraordinary rendition flights.

11. The Guardian newspaper revealed on 6 December and 12 September 2005 that airports in Biggin Hill, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brize Norton, Farnborough, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, RAF Mildenhall, Northolt, and Stansted have allowed CIA or CIA-chartered jets to land temporarily. These aircraft had flown into the UK approximately 210 times since 2001.