Protesters target Scots airports allegedly used by 'torture flights'

About 150 protesters from groups such as the Stop the War coalition joined opposition MSPs to hand out leaflets at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Prestwick airports.

The protesters claim the UK has breached international law by allowing the extraordinary rendition flights, which some claim carry terror suspects to be tortured by US-friendly regimes, to land on Scottish soil.

At Edinburgh airport, the Scottish Socialist Party leader, Colin Fox, said: "Our government admits and the CIA admits that these flights stopped at this airport. They say they were normal and routine but we don't believe them.

"The onus is on them to prove to us that these flights did not contain people kidnapped from one country and taken to another because it has a regime that allows torture."

He added: "People here are going away for Christmas to escape the cold weather and they would be horrified at the prospect of their planes parked on the tarmac next to a 'CIA tours' jet with passengers in orange jumpsuits and manacles on their way to Bagram prison or Guantanamo Bay."

Protesters at Prestwick and Glasgow released 176 balloons to symbolise the number of CIA flights they say have landed in Scotland.

However, police in Edinburgh vetoed the release as the helium-filled balloons could have presented a danger to aircraft.

Also attracting the attention of Lothian and Borders Police was Robert Lawrence, who attempted to lie down in front of the main entrance dressed in an orange boilersuit, blindfold and shackles.

The 27-year-old Royal Mail employee was moved on.

Carole Alubaid, 65, a retired casualty nurse from Bathgate, brought her nine-year-old granddaughter Elodie Baldwin, to the hour-long protest.

"I'm fighting for this child's future," she said. "These flights are nothing better than a form of state terrorism."

Ian Drummond, a student at Edinburgh's Trinity Academy, said: "This reminds me of the most blood-chilling dilemma of the 20th century - why did the German people do nothing when the Jews were being transported to the death camps?

"It is our duty as citizens of a country that still has some vestiges of democracy to make sure we do something."

Not everyone agreed. South African holiday-maker Etienne De Fortier said: "I don't support [the flights] but these people are a bit naive if they think it never happened before."

Keir McKechnie, co-secretary of the Glasgow Stop the War coalition, said more protests were planned in the New Year.