France investigating if CIA flight stopped at Paris

A French prosecutor is investigating whether a suspected CIA flight transporting terror suspects to the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, landed at a Paris-area airport last year, a judicial official said Thursday.

Photo: France investigating if CIA flight stopped at Paris

The investigation aims to verify whether a Gulfstream III jet, with the registration number N50BH, landed at Le Bourget on July 20, said the official, confirming a report in the daily Le Figaro, which said the plane was on a stopover from Oslo, Norway.

The newspaper cited a Jan. 20 note from the prosecutor in the Paris suburb of Bobigny. The judicial official was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and requested anonymity.

The investigation responds to a legal complaint filed in Bobigny in December by human rights groups. Le Figaro said it should determine whether the jet was used by the CIA to transport terror suspects to Guantanamo and whether French authorities knew of the Paris stopover, reports the AP.

I.L.