Thai minister denies report of secret CIA jail in Thailand
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-07 14:37

A senior Thai Minister has categorically rejected US media reports the CIA is operating a secret jail in Thailand and using the country to transfer suspects.

"I want to reassure all of you that we do not have a secret jail and there was never any terrorist suspect passing through Thailand," Justice Minister Chidchai Vanasathidya told reporters.

"We are smart enough not to allow such of these thing to happen," he added.

The Washington Post and ABC News have reported secret Central Intelligence Agency jails have existed since March 2002 when the first was created in Thailand, but Chidchai said he was unaware of such reports.

"No, they (the US media) tried to implicate us," he said.

"I have worked on intelligence and haven't heard such a story."

Chidchai, who is also a deputy prime minister, insisted Thailand would never allow the United States to set up such jails on its soil.

The United States, which opened its first military base in Thailand in 1964 during the Vietnam war, considers Thailand a key regional ally and uses former bases in emergencies such as relief efforts after the 2004 tsunami.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is under pressure from several European countries amid allegations that the CIA runs secret prisons in Europe and uses European airports to move detained terrorist suspects.

New York-based Human Rights Watch in November said at least three men, including Southeast Asia's most wanted man, Hambali, were arrested in Thailand in 2003 and transferred to secret CIA prisons.

ABC news reported on Tuesday alleged Al-Qaeda member Abu Zabayda was captured in Pakistan and moved to Thailand.

The report said Zabayda, a Palestinian, was held in a small, disused warehouse on an active airbase in Thailand where a doctor treated his life-threatening gunshot wounds until he recovered.

ABC news reported on Tuesday prisoners including Zabayda, who was transferred to Poland, and others at a prison in Romania were moved to somewhere in north Africa after Human Rights Watch alleged the existence of the prisons.