Dick Marty, the Swiss senator investigating the CIA secret prisons/renditioning case for the Council of Europe, says he can't be certain that the U.S. used secret prisons in Europe to interrogate prison suspects.
However, he's continuing his investigation.
An excerpt from the BBC story:
The BBC's Tim Franks at the Council of Europe says the Swiss senator's report does not appear to reveal hard new facts.
'Great deal of evidence'
Mr Marty began his investigation in November and presented his interim report to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Tuesday morning.
It takes time to find justice, but I am optimistic
Dick MartyIn his report, he said "rendition" - the secret transport of prisoners via Europe to third countries where they may have been tortured - seemed to have affected more than 100 people in recent years. The facts had "not even been denied", he said.
At a news conference he denounced the practice as "criminal acts" which "run counter to the laws that prevail in all civilised countries today".
He cited the case of the Egyptian political refugee, Abu Omar, who was, he said, abducted by the CIA in the middle of the Italian city, Milan, in 2003, flown to Egypt and then tortured.
The report said his case was just one part of "a great deal of coherent, convergent evidence pointing to the existence of a system of 'relocation' or 'outsourcing' of torture".
Mr Marty singled out the Italian judiciary for praise and said the CIA kidnapping had "completely destroyed" an Italian police investigation into Abu Omar and his associates.
