No evidence of CIA prisoner transport flights through Finland
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Finland has no evidence that planes used by the US Central Intelligence Agency to secretly transport prisoners would have landed at Finnish airports.
Officials in a number of European countries are investigating reports that planes chartered by the CIA would have made refuelling stops at their airports while flying suspected terrorists to countries where US laws banning torture do not apply.
Finnish aviation officials, the Security Police (SUPO), and the Ministries of the Interior and Foreign Affairs have no information that any of the CIA planes would have stopped in Finland.
At the request of Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s Civil Aviation Administration examined its invoice database to see if there were any records of five planes believed to have been used by the CIA.
The planes in question are Raytheon Hawker 800XP (registration number N168BF), Gulfstream III (N50BH), Gulfstream V (N379P), Boeing 737 (N168D) and Boeing 737 (N313P).
The Swedish News Agency TT says that the first three planes had stopped in Sweden. US officials say that the planes are owned by private US companies.
CAA says that there is no record after 2003 that any of these planes had been in Finland, at least with the registration numbers that had been reported.
A court in Spain is currently investigating claims that the CIA had used the airport of Palma on the island of Majorca as a stopover location for flights carrying suspected terrorists.
Italy is also investigating the kidnapping of Egyptian Imam Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasri in Milan in 2003. Germany is investigating the same case, based on suspicions that Nasri may have been transported to Egypt via a US Air Force base in Germany.
There have also been calls in Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Poland, Switzerland, and Estonia.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 16.11.2005 - TODAY |
 No evidence of CIA prisoner transport flights through Finland
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