Lithuanian prosecutors have opened an investigation into claims that a Saudi Arabian terror suspect was held in a CIA ‘black site’ in the Baltic country, media reported on Thursday.
The opened case concerns the "possible illegal transportation of
persons across the state border,” prosecutors said, as quoted by
AFP.
In October, Lithuania refused to probe accusations that Mustafa
Hawsawi was imprisoned on its territory at one of the secret US
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) jails – known as ‘black sites'
– between 2004 and 2006.
Prosecutors in Vilnius said that human rights groups which
brought up Hawsawi's case had failed to provide any evidence of
wrongdoing and that a previous investigation had ruled out claims
that Al-Qaeda suspects were brought to the Baltic country.
But a high court ruled in January that prosecutors should ask
authorities in the US for testimony from Hawsawi before making a
final decision on whether to continue the case.
Human rights activists hailed the Thursday decision, saying that
it could set an example for other countries facing allegations of
hosting secret CIA jails – such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Poland, and Romania.
“We certainly hope that it will serve as an example for other
countries. And we trust that the investigation will be carried
out to get to the bottom of these allegations,” Sarah
Fulton, a lawyer at Redress human rights organization, told AFP.
Rights groups behind Hawsawi’s case claim their evidence is based
on flight data, transfers of other suspects, and information
about alleged CIA secret prisons in other countries.
Hawsawi is the second terror suspect to say that he was illegally
held in Lithuania. Abu Zubaydah, an Al-Qaeda operative who is
being held indefinitely at Guantanamo, has made the same claim.
In 2009, a Lithuanian parliamentary inquiry identified two
locations that may have been used as CIA black sites, including
an old riding school. However, a 2011 probe was dropped due to
lack of evidence.
Probes into CIA black sites have taken place in other EU
countries, as well.
Authorities in Poland have been investigating such allegations
since 2008. Warsaw is accused of striking a secret deal with
Washington, under which the CIA allegedly took over an
intelligence training academy and used it to secretly detain
prisoners as part of the war on terror.
In January, prosecutors finally promised to open an investigation
into a media report [LINK:
https://www.rt.com/news/poland-cia-secret-prison-143/ ] stating that
the CIA paid the Polish government $15 million to open a black
site on its territory.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg began examining
in December allegations that two Guantanamo detainees were
tortured in a Polish CIA black site. Poland refused to share
evidence in the case, claiming that doing so will compromise its
investigation.