Definition of Extraordinary Rendition

Extraordinary rendition is an United States extra-judicial procedure which involves the sending of untried criminal suspects, suspected terrorists or alleged supporters of groups which the US Government considers to be terrorist organizations, to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation.

This term is not yet defined in international law.

Legal scholar L. Ali Khan, a professor of law at Washburn University School of Law in Kansas, makes the following distinctions between rendition, extradition, and deportation:

Extradition is an open procedure under which a fugitive is lawfully sent to a requesting state where he has committed a serious crime. Rendition is a covert operation under which even an innocent person may be forcibly transferred to a state where he has committed no crime. It is like a bully dispatching a helpless prey to another bully in another town.

Rendition is not even deportation. A person may be deported under US immigration laws for a variety of reasons including charges of terrorism. Deportation however implies that the person is in the United States. Rendition is not territorial. US agencies can abduct a person from anywhere in the world and render him to a friendly government. In December 2003, US agents pulled Khaled El-Marsi from a bus on the Serbia-Republic of Macedonia border and flew him to Afghanistan where he was drugged and tortured [...]

Defying international treaties and US laws, rendition works on the dark fringes of legality. The [UN] Torture Convention specifies that no signatory state shall expel, return, or extradite a person to another state where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture. The Convention is so strict in its prohibition of torture that it allows no exceptions under which any such transfer may be justified. Additionally, it is a crime under US laws to commit torture outside the United States. If the victim dies of torture, the crime is punishable with death. It is also a crime for US officials to conspire to commit torture outside the United States. Under both the Convention and US laws, therefore, rendition is strictly prohibited if the rendered person would be subjected to torture.

Information from Wikipedia.org