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WRITTEN QUESTION E-3095/04 put by Fausto Bertinotti (GUE/NGL), Roberto Musacchio (GUE/NGL), Vittorio Agnoletto (GUE/NGL), Luisa Morgantini (GUE/NGL) and Giusto Catania (GUE/NGL) to the Council
Subject: Private jets for prisoner transport to countries with no anti-torture laws
In an article published on 14 November 2004, the Sunday Times revealed the existence of 'ghost' private jets used by the United States to transport terrorist suspects to countries in which torture is not prohibited by law. According to the investigation carried out by the Sunday Times, a 14-seater Gulfstream 5 jet, registered as 'N379P' and hired from Premier Executive Transport Services, a private company in Massachusetts, flew to 49 destinations outside the US, including the Guantánamo Bay prison camp and other US bases, as well as Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan, 'always departing from Washington'. The newspaper report also refers to 'testimonies' regarding four presumed 'deportations' of suspects. The first of these were obtained by Swedish TV: they reported that Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed Zery were 'loaded on to the Gulfstream in December 2001 in Stockholm by hooded US agents', flown to Egypt and were then 'beaten and tortured with electric shocks to their genitals'. The Sunday Times gives the names of two other 'desaparecidos': Jamil Gasim, a Yemeni captured in Karachi who disappeared in Jordan in 2001, and Muhammad Saad Iqbal, arrested in Jakarta in 2002 and put 'on a US Gulfstream flight' to Egypt. Other 'torture flights' were reported in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, where the former British ambassador, Craig Murray, was dismissed after accusing the CIA of complicity in acts of torture. The newspaper also mentions a second aircraft (a white Boeing 737 flying under registration 'B313P') and includes a statement by a former CIA agent, Bob Baer.
How does the Council view these reports and how does it intend to react to put an end to any such illegal transport of persons subjected to torture?
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WRITTEN QUESTION E-3120/04 put by Marco Rizzo (GUE/NGL) and Umberto Guidoni (GUE/NGL) to the Council
Subject: Torture flights
Several journalists allege that the CIA and the American intelligence services are using Gulfstream jets to transport terrorist suspects to countries which torture detainees under interrogation in their jails; the countries in question apparently include Egypt, Syria, and Uzbekistan.
The same sources claim that there have been more than 300 flights to these countries during the last two years and all trace has been lost of some prisoners. No one knows whether they are still alive.
There are suspicions that even the Imam of Milan may have been abducted and transported on these jets.
1. What steps will the Council take to ascertain whether the press reports are true?
2. What action does it propose to take in addition in relation to a non-European country that is openly violating the principles laid down in Articles 3 and 4 of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights?
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JOINT REPLY to Written Questions E-3095/04 put by Fausto BERTINOTTI and others, and E-3120/04 put by Marco RIZZO and Umberto GUIDONI
The Council is not in the habit of commenting on articles published in the press. The events described by the Honourable Members in their questions have not been discussed by the Council.
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