EU probe into alleged CIA flights stalled

The European Union’s main satellite centre still has not supplied images of air bases in north-eastern Poland and eastern Romania to Council of Europe investigators, hindering their probe into allegations of CIA secret prisons in eastern Europe.

But a member of the investigation team said the centre had responded positively to the request for the pictures and the investigators were hoping to receive them soon.

“It’s all in the pipeline,” said Andrew Drzemcewski, an official at the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights watchdog.

The satellite centre in Torrejon de Ardoz, Spain, has been under pressure from the EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini to supply the images.

Drzemcewski said the investigators have not yet received log books archived by the Brussels-based air safety organisation Eurocontrol, requested by the head of the investigation in December to be able to determine flight patterns of several dozen suspect CIA planes.