Brussels, 17/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Council of Europe rapporteur on secrete detentions and illegal transfers of prisoners in Europe, Dick Marty, from Switzerland, declared on Tuesday that he had been confronted by a “wall of silence” from almost all European governments. Speaking in Brussels where he was presenting the main elements in his report to MEPs, Marty indicated that, “countries have still not replied to the questions we put to them. This silence is continuing to cover up massive violations of human rights”. His report was adopted at the end of June by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It revealed the existence of secret CIA led detention centres in Poland and Romania and indicated that some countries were falling back on “state secret” to block investigations into serious human right violations perpetrated by their agents (EUROPE 9457). According to Marty, this governmental silence is a result of the agreement that NATO member countries signed on 4 October 2001 - the elements of which have remained secret until now - and which would have enabled the US to carry out anti-terrorist operations in Europe. Marty unveiled the hidden part of the agreement to MEPs, which aimed to ensure impunity of US agents operating in allied territories, as well as the absence of controls on plans when they take off. Many MEPs gave a very favourable welcome to the Council of Europe investigator's conclusions. For example, his counterpart at the European Parliament, Italian MEP Claudio Fava (PES), whose report was voted for in February 2007 (EUROPE 9366). The latter confirmed that the Commission and Council had not always responded to accusations made by the two institutions. He affirmed that Parliament would be examining the own initiative report on the follow up to this case, in the autumn. The Dick Marty report also came in for a lot of flak, notably from Jas Gawronski (EPP-ED, Italy). The Italian MEP deplored the fact that, “after two years of work, you simply reaffirm what the Washington Post has already reported, without giving any concrete proof at all”. As well as the contents of the report, the Marty method was already criticised particularly because it used anonymous sources to build an incisive report. To justify himself, Marty provided assurances that he had never used information from a single source. He was also criticised for having quoted political leaders who knew about the CIA's illegal activities in their countries, as in the case of Socialist MEPs, Ioan Pascu (Romania) and Marek Siwiec (Poland). The latter had even threatened to go to the courts. Marty defended himself and explained that his report should be seen as a “political and no legal accusation”.