Czech foreign minister won’t testify on CIA flights

13 April 2006

PRAGUE – Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda refused Thursday to appear before a German parliamentary commission investigating alleged US-funded flights for transferring suspected terrorists.

In a statement to the Czech news agency CTK, Svoboda said it was “unthinkable” for a cabinet member to be questioned in Berlin “on a topic with which the Czech state has nothing in common at all.”

Parliament deputy Max Stadler of the liberal opposition party FDP said this week that Svoboda should appear before the commission investigating the flights allegedly sponsored by the US intelligence agency CIA.

Stadler said Svoboda should be questioned about his alleged comments about whether the Czechs imprisoned suspected terrorists for the CIA.

However Svoboda told CTK, “I have never received any information, whether on alleged CIA prisoners in the Czech Republic or their flights over the Czech Republic.”

Last week, London-based Amnesty International released a report documenting about 200 takeoffs and landings in Europe by three, CIA- linked aircraft between 2001 and last year.

The report said 20 landings and takeoffs occurred at the Prague airport – more than in any other East European country.

The Czech government has not formally replied to the report, although some ministries have told CTK that they have no information about the allegations.

DPA

Subject: German news