By Xinhua
Budapest : An unmarked Boeing 737 airplane, which was thought to be used for CIA rendition flights, has been spotted recently in central Europe, Hungary’s daily Nepszabadsag reported.
However, US embassy press attaché Jan Krc said he had no knowledge of any CIA-run planes to Hungary or elsewhere.
Krc told Hungarian official news agency MTI Wednesday that only normal flights have been running between the Middle East and the US and these planes have not been carrying either prisoners or any unusual cargo.
A photo of a plane allegedly taken at Budapest’s Ferihegy International Airport in 2006 showed it bears the registration number N34315. The report suggests that the plane is used to transport terrorist suspects from South Asia and the Middle East to the US.
A Slovak television reporter spotted recently a Boeing 737 airplane at Bratislava airport. It is the same plane as the one photographed in Budapest in 2006, said the paper.
Ferihegy airport spokesman Domokos Szollar said charter flights between Iraq and the US often make stopovers in Budapest to refuel. He said if military personnel are on board, it is separately indicated on the flight plan, issued to Hungarian authorities.
Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Lajos Szelestey said Wednesday there was no special agreement between the US and Hungary under which certain US planes would be allowed to land and depart from Hungary without monitoring.
Asked if he knew for certain that these charter planes were not participating in operations that violate international and human rights when they landed in Hungary, the spokesman said the foreign ministry had no information whatsoever on the planes.
The Hungarian arm of Amnesty International has demanded that the government investigate whether Budapest was “being used as a stop on the Guantanamo Express”.
Government spokesman David Daroczi said the government had no knowledge to that effect but would look into the matter.