The Spanish National Court has received a prosecutor’s report on allegations that the CIA used an airport on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca for its program of covert transfers of terror suspects, court officials said Monday.
The chief prosecutor for the Balearic Islands submitted the report to the court in July, after a four-month investigation prompted by articles in a Mallorca newspaper, the court officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because court rules bar them from giving their names.
The newspaper, Diario de Mallorca, said earlier this month that Spanish police have identified three planes used by the CIA at the airport in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, in its “extraordinary rendition” program.
The U.S. government has been criticized by human rights groups for practicing “extraordinary rendition” — sending suspected terrorists to foreign countries, where they are detained, interrogated and subjected to possible ill-treatment.