UK 'helped in CIA's abuse of human rights'

BRITAIN colluded with the US Government in transferring terror suspects to detention centres in Europe allegedly operated by the CIA, a report today claimed.

The head of a European investigation into the claims said that 14 European nations, including Britain, colluded with US intelligence in a "spider's web" of human rights abuses, singling out Romania and Poland as likely dropping-off points for detainees.

The report named European states for their involvement in providing "staging posts" for rendition flights and exchanging information with the US that led to renditions or torture.

The Green Party claimed that Glasgow's Prestwick Airport was singled out in the report as a stopover point for so-called terror flights refuelling.

In the report, Swiss MP Dick Marty accuses the UK of not only offering logistical support to the CIA's practice of "rendition" but also providing information that was used in the torture of a terror suspect in Morocco.

Mr Marty said in his report: "Even if proof is not as yet available, a number of coherent and converging elements indicate that such secret detention centres did indeed exist in Europe.

"It is now clear... that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities."