Abductions of persons on the territories of EU Member States and transfer to custody in third countries
9.6.2005
WRITTEN QUESTION E-2204/05
by Martine Roure (PSE) , Giovanni Fava (PSE) and Wolfgang Kreissl-Dörfler (PSE)
to the Commission
Given the judicial investigations under way in various Member States concerning the role of the CIA in abductions of persons; given that these abductions involve citizens of the European Union and of third countries who were transferred from the territory of certain Member States to third countries to be tortured and held in inhumane and degrading conditions;
Given in particular: (1) the ‘special extradition’ of the asylum seekers Muhammed al‑Zery and Ahmed Agiza, who were handed to a unit of the US intelligence services by Swedish intelligence services on 18 December 2001; the US is believed to have handed them to the Egyptian authorities who are thought to have detained and tortured them; (2) the abduction in Milan on 16 February 2003 of the Egyptian citizen Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr by a unit of the CIA and his transfer via the American air base at Aviano to Egypt to be detained and tortured there; (3) the abduction of the German citizen Khaled el‑Masri from Skopje in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on 31 December 2003 and his transfer to an American prison in Afghanistan, where he is understood to have been tortured and beaten;
Given Articles 6, 7, 11, 24 and 34 of the Treaty on European Union, the articles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the United Nations Convention against Torture;
Can the Commission indicate whether it intends to act in order to:
- —investigate as a matter of urgency whether agreements exist between Member States and third countries, particularly the United States, that allow the violation of the principles of the rule of law as well as of the guarantees and of the fundamental rights enshrined in the treaties, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, the ECHR, the UN Convention against Torture and the Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees;
- —check with the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy as to whether, in the course of the external relations for which the European Union is responsible, instances of abduction similar to those outlined above have taken place and, if so, what these were, in order to intervene with the third countries concerned to ensure that these actions are suspended without delay;
- —guarantee that the human rights of citizens of the Union are respected by all third countries, both on the territory of the Union and beyond, and to raise this requirement with the competent authorities of these countries as soon as possible, in particular through the appropriate forums for transatlantic dialogue?
OJ C 299, 08/12/2006