Government admits terror suspect landed at Prestwick airport
02.04.06
The government has admitted that Prestwick airport was used by the US to transport a terrorism suspect to America. In a parliamentary answer, a Foreign Office minister said in June 1998 a 'rendition flight' containing a detainee landed at Prestwick Airport. However, ministers said there was no evidence of 'extraordinary rendition' flights landing in the UK since 11 September 2001.
The minister, Kim Howells, said the flight was carrying Mohammed Rashid, who was charged over the bombing of a Pan Am aircraft in August 1982. He pleaded guilty to murder in December 2002, and is due to be sentenced shortly.
The government has acknowledged that six US planes, linked by campaigners to extraordinary rendition flights, landed and took off from UK airports on 73 occasions since 2001. Amnesty International has published the details of CIA flights it said used UK airfields, including Prestwick, to refuel just hours after transferring detainees to countries where they risked torture. But ministers insist there is no evidence that the flights had prisoners on board.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: 'We have found no evidence of detainees being rendered though the UK or overseas territories since September 11, 2001.'
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