Lord Advocate 'Evasive and Unconvincing' Over CIA Rendition Flights
Thu., November 24, 2005. 11:41.
Law officer refuses to investigate torture flights
Green MSP Chris Ballance described Lord Advocate Colin Boyd as ‘evasive and unconvincing’ following ministerial question time this afternoon.
Mr Ballance has been pursuing the Executive and the police to investigate the growing body of circumstantial evidence which suggests that the CIA have routinely used Scottish airports to refuel so called ‘rendition flights’ carrying illegally detained individuals around the world to be tortured either directly by the CIA or by client states where torture in common place.
Reacting to the Lord Advocate’s replies to questioning, Ballance said:
“I asked the Lord Advocate two questions and he did not answer either. I asked if the Executive had received any new evidence pertaining to the allegations of the use of our airports by the CIA - since I last asked the Justice Minister about this some weeks ago - and what action they had taken as a result? Despite the fact that we know that Channel Four News has supplied photographs to both Cathy Jamieson and the Chief Constable of Strathclyde referenced to known CIA flights using Glasgow and Prestwick airports in support of my own complaint, the Lord Advocate simply ignored the question. Why?
"I would have thought that Ministers and Police would have already sought access to the same information supplied by the US government that has started this furore. It appears they haven't, yet this is a serious crime and these are serious allegations.
“When I pressed him to reveal if anyone in the Justice Department had been in correspondence with Strathclyde Police in an attempt to influence them in their decision as to how they should respond to my request that they investigate the allegations of possible acts of torture taking place on Scottish soil, he refused to either confirm or deny the existence of any such correspondence. Again, why?
“The response of the Lord Advocate on this occasion falls well short of what we are entitled to expect of the senior law officer. I will now be writing to him to ask not only why he completely failed to answer a perfectly simply question, but why, apparently, he does not believe that the evidence presented to his colleague Cathy Jamieson, the Minister for Justice, is not sufficient grounds for him to instruct Strathclyde Police to properly investigate this matter, as he is uniquely empowered to do.
“For weeks now the mantra from our law officers is ‘if you have any evidence take it to the police’. We have done, and we believe that reasonable grounds for suspicion have been established. I believe most lawyers would agree, and I believe that there is something very far wrong when the police refuse to act and our law officers effectively tell us to do the police’s job for them.
‘We must have answers, and that is why in addition to writing to the Lord Advocate, I will be lodging FOI requests with Strathclyde Police, Ministers and with our Law Officers for copies of all correspondence between them pertaining to this matter.”
Contact the Scottish Greens' press team on 07909 933 074.