Spanish minister due before committee on CIA prisons

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos is due to appear before a European Parliament committee investigating alleged CIA secret flights and detention centres in Europe today to answer questions about his government’s possible involvement in the transfer of suspects to US secret agents.

Moratinos is the first EU government minister to testify before the special committee, which has heard dozens of hours of testimony from individuals who said they were kidnapped and tortured by US agents, as well as from EU officials and rights groups.

Giovanni Fava, an Italian member of the EU assembly, said in a report earlier this year that 125 CIA-related flights landed at 10 Spanish airports between 2003 and 2005.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in June that the Spanish government had no knowledge of the possible use of Spanish airports by the CIA for a covert programme to transfer terror suspects.