PARIS: The head of a European investigation into alleged secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe said he was investigating 31 suspect planes that landed in Europe in recent years, and was trying to acquire past satellite images of sites in Romania and Poland.

In an interview on Tuesday, Swiss Senator Dick Marty said the Council of Europe, the human rights watchdog on whose behalf he was investigating, had a "moral obligation" to look into claims the CIA set up secret prisons on the continent to interrogate al-Qaida suspects.

He said that despite lack of proof, there were "many hints, such as suspicious moving patterns of aircraft, that have to be investigated."

Given the limited powers of the Strasbourg-based human rights watchdog, Marty's chances of uncovering explosive state secrets seemed unclear.

But the potential impact ranges from major embarrassment for the United States to turmoil in countries that might have participated, even unwittingly. Countries found housing secret detention centres could also be suspended or expelled from the 46-member Council of Europe.

Allegations the CIA hid and interrogated key al-Qaida suspects at Soviet-era compounds in Eastern Europe were first reported in The Washington Post on November 2.

A day later, Human Rights Watch said it had evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania. The New York-based group identified the Kogalniceanu military airfield in Romania and Poland's Szczytno-Szymany airport as possible sites for secret detention centres, saying it based its conclusion on flight logs of CIA aircraft from 2001 to 2004 that it had obtained.

In a report presented in Paris on Tuesday to the legal affairs committee of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly, Marty says other airports that might have been used by CIA aircraft in some capacity are in Palma de Mallorca, Larnaca in Cyprus and Shannon in Ireland, said Marty's report, which was obtained by the media.

Marty's report says the aircraft are "alleged to belong to entities with direct or indirect links to the CIA. It is claimed these were used by the CIA to transport prisoners." He said he asked the Brussels-based Eurocontrol air safety organization to provide details of 31 suspect planes which flew through Europe, in accordance with a list given to him by Human Rights Watch.

"When we talk about 'prisons,' they don't necessarily have to be for many people, they could be cells for a very small group of people, one or two," said Marty.

Marty said he was planning to ask authorities in the Council of Europe's member states whether they have been contacted in order to "authorize secret detention in one form or another."

He also said he intended to ask US Senator John Kerry to share any information the Senate may get from US Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on the possible existence of secret detention facilities outside the United States.

On Monday, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw agreed to write to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on behalf of the European Union to seek clarification of the reports.

Source: China Daily