Human rights court to hear CIA prison in Poland case early December
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
17.10.2013 13:16
The first hearing brought by former captives who allege that they were held at a CIA black site in Poland will begin at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on 2 and 3 December.
European Court of Human Rights: photo wikipedia
The case has been brought to court by Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah, both still incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay, who claim they were detained and tortured at a secret CIA facility in Stare Kiejkuty, northern Poland in 2002 and 2003.
Present at the hearing will be UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter - terrorism Ben Emmerson and lawyers representing their clients, though it is not known at what level Poland will be represented.
“We do not know who will represent the Polish government,” says Adam Bodnar of the Helsinki Foundation.
Both complainants will accuse the current Polish investigation into whether there was a CIA prison in Poland, which has been underway since 2008 but has still to reach a conclusion, of “chronic inefficiency”.
“I hope that the Court determines the admissibility of the application and will issue a decision that Poland comply with standards under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and Polish law,” Bartlomiej Jankowski, the lawyer representing Abu Zubaydah told the TVP broadcaster.
Poland’s left wing prime minister and president at the time of the accusations of a CIA prison on Polish soil, Leszek Millar and Aleksander Kwasniewski respectively, have maintained that they had no knowledge of such a facility, though anonymous sources within Poland’s secret services have told media that there was a detention centre run by American operatives at Stare Kiejkuty. (pg)