Jean, who sits on the European Parliament’s Temporary Committee Of Inquiry into the CIA abuses, today said that despite the efforts of some member states to soften the report, it had sent a strong message that EU Government’s could no longer ‘stick their heads in the sand’ and ignore the problem.

Jean commented; “The so-called ‘war’ on terror has been used by some to rework international law and defy international conventions on human rights and the treatment of those detained (on suspicion, not proof) without trial or any due process. Human rights are universal and indivisible and the EU is committed to upholding these rights.

“This report confronts us with an uncomfortable reality, that the CIA did both abduct and transport civilians in EU countries, a practice that many EU governments and key officials in the EU institutions were aware of. We now urge Member State Parliaments and Governments to investigate fully what may have been happening on their territory.

“This must not be the end of the Parliament’s involvement in this issue and we must be vigilant to ensure that its recommendations are acted on. As a member of the European Parliament’s Human Rights and Civil Liberties Committees I will ensure that we re-evaluate our findings in the coming months. We need clear rules to prevent external secret services from carrying out human rights violations with impunity in EU territory again.”

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Jean Lambert, who sits on the European Parliament’s temporary Committee of Inquiry, called on member state parliaments and governments to investigate fully what may have been happening on their territory by continuing their own inquiry and today welcomed Italy’s lead to hold the first criminal trial over ‘extraordinary rendition’.

Jean commented; “The European Parliament’s report confronted us with an uncomfortable reality, that the CIA did both abduct and transport civilians in EU Countries, a practice that many Governments and key officials were aware of.  It is vital that justice is done through criminal trials such as the one Italy has ordered, for those who may have experienced such torture and to ensure that these violations never happen again.

“I am pleased to see that the Italian Government is acting on the allegations. The trial will dig a lot deeper into this individual case than we previously could in the EU Parliament and may reveal further information that was not unearthed before. In the event of this happening we will re-evaluate our findings and will keep a close watch over the trials activities as it progresses.”

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Jean Lambert:  In October 2005 Jean was named MEP 2005 for Justice and Human Rights.  Jean was first elected Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London in the 1999 European elections. She was re-elected in 2004. She is one of nine MEPs representing London and one of two UK Green representatives in the European Parliament.

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Speaking after the vote UK Green MEP Jean Lambert , who sits on the Committee of Inquiry into the Extraordinary Rendition Flights and has been awarded for her work on Justice and Human Rights, welcomed the report and commented; “Over the past year the European Parliament’s CIA Inquiry has brought to light evidence confirming that the CIA used Europe as a stomping ground for illegally abducting and transporting civilians in the context of the US ‘war on terror’.

“I welcome that, despite the efforts of some MEPs to muzzle the report, it is open in its criticism of specific Member States, detailing some of these human rights abuses and pointing to the complicity of EU Governments, either actively or passively in this process.

“The report is seriously critical of the role of the UK in this murky saga, not only the fact that there were 170 stopovers by CIA flights in the UK but also that the UK Government failed to co-operate fully with the Committee and also refused consular services to residents that were detained.

“Many Member State Governments have treated this inquiry like an unwanted headache and hoped that by keeping quiet or refusing to co-operate with the investigation the ache would go away. The lack of cooperation with the Committee, both by Member States and the Council, is an indictment of their complicity in the illegal CIA activities.

“While the adoption of this report marks the end of the CIA Committees activities, it can not be the end of the process aimed to uncover these abuses and prevent a similar situation occurring in the future.  The UK Government now has a responsibility to take this forward and continue this serious investigation.”

The report will now go to a full vote of the EU Parliament in February and the Committee of Inquiry has called on the European Council to start an independent investigation and impose sanctions on Member States whose role in these human rights abuses are confirmed.

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London’s Green MEP, Jean Lambert, who sits on the Temporary Committee of Inquiry into the CIA ‘extraordinary rendition flights’ is part of the delegation who met with alleged victims and their lawyers, as well as Geoff Hoon MP, Minster For Europe and Former Defence Secretary, during their three day visit to the Capital.

Speaking after the meeting with Geoff Hoon, Jean, who recently met with Officials in the US, commented; “The European Parliament Inquiry into the CIA ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights has answered many of the questions we started out with. It is now, however, like a jigsaw puzzle that is nearly complete, there are just a few missing pieces, questions and issues that must be addressed before we can draw a final conclusion. The delegation to London will hopefully fill these missing gaps.

“The UK Government is meant to protect our human rights but whilst they originally denied all knowledge of such activities it seems their interest may have been in simply meeting targets.

“There is no excuse for the CIA’s alleged ‘extraordinary rendition’ flights, or for torture of any kind.  We have to find out exactly what happened and why in order to ensure such events never take place again.”

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