SNP to look at terror flight evidence
11.06.07
Scotland's SNP government has said it will examine evidence that Scottish airports have been used by CIA 'rendition flights'. First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday invited human rights groups to meet Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill on the issue.
The move came after a report was issued by police chiefs concluded there was no evidence such flights had landed in England. However, their inquiry did not investigate allegations that CIA aircraft refuelled at Glasgow and Prestwick airports.
Human rights groups and newspaper reports have claimed the CIA has used Scottish airports as a stop-off point when carrying terrorism suspects to secret prisons elsewhere in Europe, Africa and Asia. They claim that the suspects face intensive interrogation techniques including torture at these prisons. The Council of Europe has previously also said that rendition flights did pass through the UK and other European countries.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of campaign group Liberty, said: 'I think it is high time we had a formal inquiry and that really needs to be on both sides of the border. The work of the Guardian journalists suggests that Prestwick has had a lot of CIA flight activity through it.'
Speaking on the BBC's Politics Show, the first minister said any evidence presented to the government that these terror flights had stopped in the UK, which would break EU and International laws, would be evaluated before a decision was taken on whether a full Scottish investigation should be carried out.
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