Loophole

Police have been asked to probe claims that the CIA has used UK airports to move terrorist suspects to secret jails in other countries to be tortured.

The US has refused to confirm or deny the existence of secret prisons, but said its laws had not been broken.

The Foreign Office said it had no evidence of such use of UK territory.

Stephen Crawshaw, of Human Rights Watch UK, said that flight details showed planes travelling between Afghanistan and the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were stopping off in eastern European countries.

"The question then comes up, why would you be stopping off in a remote airfield in, say, Poland, or, say, Romania? It's not a refuelling stop, so what is it doing there?" he said.

The airports allegedly involved include Biggin Hill in Kent, Birmingham, Bournemouth, RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, Farnborough, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Mildenhall in Suffolk, RAF Northolt in north London, Stansted and Prestwick.