Brussels, 2007/06/16, IRIB

A week after the publication of second report by the European Council Rapporteur for Human Rights Dick Marty in regard to existence of CIA secret prisons in Romania and Poland, the Romanian Foreign Minister Adrian Cioroianu has questioned the validity of this report.

Following his meeting with American officials in Washington, the Romanian Foreign Minister said currently there are no official and precise evidence in regard to existence of CIA-owned prisons in Romania. But this pivotal issue is on the agenda of negotiations between the Roman Foreign Minister and U.S. officials, as a political challenge facing the Romanian government. Bush had previously confessed to existence of CIA secret prisons in Europe, without mentioning their whereabouts. Romania and Poland, in addition to European Union, are currently facing a serious challenge, being accused of violation of fundamental principles of European Human Rights Charter.

Throughout the 19 months, which have passed following the disclosure of CIA-owned secret prisons and its secret operations in Europe, Dick Marty has published two reports. In his first report, which was released June, last year, Marty reported about the cooperation of 20 European countries with CIA. This report announced that in order to kidnap and transfer terrorist suspects to different parts of the world, CIA has conducted more than 1,000 secret flights, only from European countries’ airports. Meanwhile, the European governments have been informed about these flights and the spy agencies of these countries have cooperated with CIA. Meanwhile, Romania and Poland bear the brunt of Marty’s criticisms because of allowing CIA spies to use the horrifying prisons of former communist regimes in these countries to torture and interrogate kidnapped individuals.

Dick Marty's second report, which was released last week, has been based on interviews with 30 European and U.S. spies about CIA secret prisons in Romania and Poland. Confirmation of this report will place European Union in a difficult situation. European Commissioner for Justice Franco Fratini announced on November 2005, that if the existence of CIA secret prisons in Romania and Poland were proved, these two countries right to vote at the European Union Council of Ministers would be suspended. The fact-finding committees that European Parliament and Council have established in regard to CIA secret flights and prisons in Europe has forced Fratini and other European Union and countries officials not to adopt a clear position in this regard. They have mainly either implicitly accepted this fact and/or considered the existing evidence about CIA secret prisons in Europe as unfounded. Britain was one of the countries that admitted to CIA secret flights.

Dick Marty's report once again shows European governments contradictory conducts in their so-called defense of human rights.

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