[JURIST Europe] A Council of Europe [official website] report released Tuesday argues that not only did alleged secret prisons run by the CIA in Europe exist, but that many European governments knew of the prisons and 'turned a blind eye'. Dick Marty, a Swiss legislator, prepared the report at the request of the Council of Europe [JURIST report]; he flagged some of his anticipated findings in statements [JURIST report] earlier this month. Marty acknowledged that he had no new material on the location of the prisons to present and that he still had no proof of the actual existence of the alleged prisons, but claimed that the chance of finding proof was rapidly decreasing, as most of the sites were probably small to begin with and have been closed down by now. Marty's report also covers alleged CIA rendition [JURIST news archive] flights that have reportedly criss-crossed Europe transferring suspected terrorists to countries where they could be tortured for information. Read the official CoE press release and the full report [official PDF text]. The UK Independent has local coverage.

D. Wes Rist is Bureau Chief for JURIST Europe, reporting European legal news from a European perspective. He is based in the UK.