THE First Minister has said he will "consider" calls from the Scottish Greens to evict American troops from Prestwick Airport.
It comes after Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer warned of the consequences of President Donald Trump's "piracy".
The captain and first officer of a Russian-flagged oil tanker seized by the US were taken out of UK territory by the US Coastguard earlier this week.
The Marinera was seized on January 7 near Iceland before being sailed to the Moray coast near Inverness.
The US Department of Justice told Scottish authorities that the skipper, Avtandil Kalandadze, and his unnamed colleague were on board the US Coast Guard vessel Munro.
Scotland's Justice Secretary Angela Constance said the episode had shown a lack of respect for "Scottish jurisdiction and Scots law", after the Court of Session in Edinburgh imposed an order banning the UK and Scottish authorities from removing the crew from Scottish jurisdiction, at the request of the captain's wife.
Greer says the US military "abducted" the pair in the middle of the night, despite the court ruling, and called on President Donald Trump to face "consequences".
Speaking at Holyrood, he said: "The First Minister has spent months trying to charm Donald Trump. That strategy has failed. He is not our ally – he is a fascist.
"Our sovereignty has been violated, our courts have been defied and a foreign military has abducted two people from our territory.
"The Scottish and UK Governments need to respond to that. The US military uses Prestwick Airport as a de facto base. The Scottish Government owns the airport.
"Will the First Minister show Trump that his piracy has consequences? Will he evict all American troops from Prestwick Airport immediately?"
READ MORE: US Government responds to claim it 'abducted two people from Scotland'
First Minister John Swinney said he would "consider the issues", but that Prestwick Airport has "particular responsibilities to exercise".
He said: "I understand the strength of feeling on the issue, which is why I have come to Parliament to give this statement.
"It is so important that I am clear with Parliament and the public that, in every respect, the proper application of the legal processes of Scotland has been applied in this case.
"What the Scottish Government and the Lord Advocate cannot do is exercise powers that we do not have.
"In my statement, I made the point that at no stage did we have the legal basis to board that vessel. That limited what the Scottish Government could do.
"We have indicated that, where there is to be any question of individuals interacting with the legal process, those individuals have to be able to exercise their rights in the Scottish jurisdiction.
"As Mr Greer knows, that will involve ECHR rights, too. I assure Mr Greer that all those factors and powers have been properly and fully applied by the Lord Advocate.
"Prestwick Airport operates at arm’s length from the government and it has particular responsibilities to exercise. We will consider the issues that Mr Greer has raised in his question."
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