JURIST - Paper Chase: Spain court launches investigation into CIA rendition flights

[JURIST] Spain's National Court said Monday it would investigate allegations that the US Central Intelligence Agency [official website] used an airport on the island of Mallorca in its alleged "spider's web" of extraordinary rendition flights to transport terror suspects. The investigation comes in response to a report [PDF text; JURIST report] released last week by the Council of Europe (CoE) [official website], Europe's human rights watchdog, accusing 14 European countries of colluding with the CIA to transport terror suspects on secret flights. The Spanish government denies any involvement [JURIST report] in the alleged rendition flights, and announced that it will not tolerate human rights violations, including such rendition flights, if they do occur within the boundaries of Spain. The CoE report, written by Swiss legislator Dick Marty, provided no concrete evidence of rendition flights [JURIST news archive] or secret prisons [CoE materials], but instead was meant to pressure the 14 accused European nations to conduct "serious, transparent investigations."

Spain investigated similar accusations [JURIST report] last fall from the media, finding that stopovers by private planes in Mallorca airport and the Canary Islands were legal [JURIST report]. AP has more.

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