Pole, Romanian demand clearance on CIA jails

BRUSSELS, July 16 (Reuters) Former Polish and Romanian government officials gave a European investigator a last chance today to remove their names from a report on secret CIA prisons, saying they will otherwise take him to court.

The Council of Europe report written by Swiss Senator Dick Marty alleged that former Polish national security adviser Marek Siwiec and former Romanian Defence Minister Ioan Pascu knew that their countries hosted secret CIA detention centres for suspected terrorists.

Poland and Romania have repeatedly denied having had prisons of the US Central Intelligence Agency on their soil.

''I have decided to take the case to court. My good name was trodden under foot,'' Siwiec, now a vice-president of the European Parliament, told a news conference in Brussels, a day before Marty is due to address EU lawmakers.

Pascu, a member of the assembly, said: ''Mr Marty does not support his accusations with concrete evidence, undermining the credibility both of his report and the Council itself.'' The two men gave Marty seven days to remove their names from the report or face a lawsuit. The Swiss senator was not immediately available for comment.

Marty's report said Poland and Romania housed some of the CIA's most sensitive prisoners under a post-September 11 pact to hunt down and interrogate ''high value'' terrorist suspects wanted by the United States.

He based his report on interviews with more than 30 European and US intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, but Poland and Romania dismissed his conclusions because none of his sources was named.

Marty is due to meet the Parliament's Civil Liberties and Foreign Affairs Committee tomorrow.

The Swiss investigator has defended the use of anonymous witnesses, saying his sources needed to be protected because they would face charges of high treason in their countries if their identity was revealed.

US President George W Bush acknowledged last year that the CIA had held top al Qaeda suspects in secret overseas detention centres but did not say in which countries.

REUTERS KK BD1635