[JURIST] Canada, Sweden and Eritrea are pressuring Ethiopia [JURIST news archive] to reveal details regarding the foreign nationals it has allegedly detained in secret prisons in collaboration with the FBI and CIA [JURIST report]. The existence of prisons in which US government agencies have interrogated individuals suspected of having ties to al Qaeda was disclosed on Tuesday after Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] reports claimed [JURIST report] that the US, Kenya, and Ethiopia were cooperating with the transitional government of Somalia to detain refugees from the recent conflict there.

Among those believed to be imprisoned in Ethiopia are Canadian citizen Bashir Makhtal [advocacy website], three Eritrean citizens who were turned over to Somalia after their arrest by Kenyan authorities in January, and two Swedish citizens. Nationals of France, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Morocco and Tunisia are also thought to be detained there. Investigations of the US rendition program [JURIST news archive] have so far focused primarily on Europe, where reports revealed that sixteen EU member states [JURIST report] were involved at some level in the operation of CIA secret prisons [JURIST news archive] and rendition flights. AP has more.