UK colluded in CIA terror flights claims Swiss MP

3.02.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 7th Jun 2006

One of the CIA jets

A Swiss MP, Dick Marty, has conducted a seven-month inquiry for the Council of Europe by Swiss MP Dick Marty in to CIA extraordinary rendition. He claims that CIA flights have landed in European countries and The UK has helped the US fly terror suspects to secret detention camps. He accuses the UK of being a stop-off point for CIA flights and of passing information on British suspects who were later tortured.

Former Foreign Office Minister Tony Lloyd told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that if the findings were borne out then tactics were being used which could damage attempts to fight terrorism. He said that rendition is effectively "kidnapping" and are illegal in the UK.

Mr Lloyd said the UK Government had never admitted knowingly helping with the flights. Yet last March, after pressure from Lib Dem Leader, Sir Menzies Campbell MP, the Government admitted that aircraft suspected of being used by the CIA to transport detainees to secret interrogation centres had landed at British military airfields.