Existence of secret US prisons for terrorist suspects
10.11.2005
WRITTEN QUESTION E-4335/05
by Stavros Lambrinidis (PSE)
to the Council
On 2 and 3 November 2005 the Washington Post and the New York Times revealed the existence of an extensive network of ‘secret prisons’ run by the CIA throughout the world for holding and interrogating terrorist suspects. These newspapers have revealed that at least one of these prisons has been set up in a former military compound in ‘eastern Europe’. Suspects are taken to the prisons without any control of the legality either of the decision to take and imprison them there or of the conditions of their detention and interrogation. The US administration has also admitted that it is pursuing a policy of ‘renditions’ of terrorist suspects (including European citizens) found on the territory of third countries in order to ‘interrogate’ them at unknown locations. Given that the US administration asserts that the Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war do not apply to terrorist suspects, it can be assumed that the treatment of prisoners in the secret prisons violates international law and human rights. The US President has characteristically threatened to veto a law adopted recently by the US Senate under which international rules and US laws would apply to the treatment of the US prisoners throughout the world.
The Council has already been asked whether it has been informed by the US authorities of the existence and location of the secret prisons (for instance, Oral Question H-0989/05 by Mr Panagiotis Beglitis of 3 November).
In view of the above, will the Council also say:
Does it intend to ask the US Government for detailed information and explanations and make representations or take other measures in respect of this very serious issue concerning a breach of human rights?
Does it know whether terrorist suspects seized by the US as part of the particularly problematic policy of ‘renditions’ (including European citizens) have been taken to these prisons?
If the EU has official relations, or is associated by special arrangements, with one or more of the countries in which the network of ‘secret’ prisons operates, what measures does it intend to take in respect of these countries so that they enforce compliance with European and international law?
Have any EU Member States or candidate countries or countries linked by special relations to the EU set up such detention centres either on their territory or elsewhere in the world?
Are there any EU Member States or candidate countries which are making, or have made, use of the US centres already in operation for the consignment, detention or interrogation of terrorist suspects which they themselves have arrested either within their borders or in third countries (such as Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.)?
OJ C 327, 30/12/2006