Biden to be asked about ‘torture flights’

Scottish prosecutors have been asked to make “immediate” contact with Joe Biden’s office to try to uncover the truth about the CIA’s “torture flights”.

Aberdeen Central SNP MSP Kevin Stewart has written to Lord Advocate James Wolffe following Donald Trump’s defeat in the US presidential election.

Mr Biden’s victory quickly led to renewed hopes that Scots might finally discover if their airports were used to illegally transfer terror suspects to interrogation sites.

The “extraordinary rendition” of detainees was carried out by the US during the War on Terror that followed the September 11 attacks in 2001.

In 2013 British academics Ruth Blakeley and Sam Raphael, directors of the Rendition Project, found “conclusive” proof that five CIA planes linked to rendition had landed at both Inverness and Wick, with a further three at Aberdeen International Airport.

Suspicious flights were also connected to other Scottish airports, and police in Scotland launched an investigation.

However, a request by detectives for an unredacted copy of a vital US Senate committee report on CIA torture was denied by the American authorities.

A police dossier was sent to the Crown Office for consideration last year, but Mr Wolffe previously suggested the case would remain open until appropriate evidence had been obtained from the US.

Mr Stewart has now urged the Crown Office to ask the US authorities again for the report, and suggested they consider making contact before Mr Biden is officially installed as the 46th president.