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Wed, 30 Apr, 2014 12:10:24 AM Stopover of CIA secret prisoner flight at Helsinki Airport FTimes-STT Report, April 30  File picture of a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency CIA flights at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. Photo Lehtikuva. The parliamentary ombudsman has not found any involvement of the Finnish authorities in the stopovers of a number of prisoner flights operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) at Helsinki Airport in 2006.
In his investigation report, Ombudsman Petri Jääskeläinen said he did not find the Finnish authorities culpable for any activities as they did not participate in the secret CIA flights.
According to the, abusing civil aviation is easy and it is still possible to use the Finnish airspace for illegal prisoner flights and other human rights violations.
The ombudsman recommended that the Finnish authorities could consider better ways to intervene in possible prisoner flights.
Such flights along with their basic human rights violations must be prevented as effectively as possible, observed the report.
Suspicions about the secret flights surfaced after the United States declared war against terrorism.
During the investigation, Jääskeläinen asked for information from 15 different sources including the Finnish Security Intelligence Service.
The investigation focused on the period between 2001 and 2006.
Martin Schein, a professor of international law and human rights, said the authorities need to be alert as such abuse could happen in the future.
Schein also observed that the issue could have been tackled earlier in around 2005-2006 when the problem became known.
His sentiments were echoed by Susanna Mehtonen, a legal expert at the Amnesty International.
According to Mehtonen, information could have been obtained when the "footprints were still fresh".
Prisoner flights are against the law, pointed out Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja. He said, “We must have a basic trust that those countries that use Finland’s airspace are not guilty of such and that they know that Finland does not accept such kind (of prisoner flights).”
In Tuomioja’s opinion, there is no reason to believe that the Finnish airspace is used to transport prisoners. According to the foreign minister, such operations have ceased.
However, earlier, when the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks reported the clandestine flights, Tuomioja straightway rejected the issue, saying it was a one-party news which could not be take into account unless and until investigation revealed the whole matter.
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