European court rules against Poland over secret CIA jail
By Christian Lowe WARSAW (Reuters) - The CIA ran a secret jail on Polish soil, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday, a decision that puts pressure on the United States and its allies to reveal the truth about the global programme for detaining al Qaeda suspects. The United States has acknowledged the existence of its "extraordinary rendition" scheme in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks but has never revealed which of its allies hosted the secret detention facilities. It is becoming harder to maintain that silence, especially after Thursday's ruling by the Strasbourg-based court, which comes as a U.S. Senate committee prepares to publish parts of a critical classified report about extraordinary rendition. Amrit Singh, a lawyer with the Open Society Justice Initiative who acted for one of the men who brought the case, said the court's ruling established beyond reasonable doubt that Poland-hosted a secret jail run by the U.S. government. "It's an historic ruling," she told Reuters. "It's time for them to own up to the truth." The court case was brought by two men, Saudi-born Abu Zubaydah, and Saudi national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who alleged they were flown in secret to a CIA-run jail in a Polish forest and subjected to treatment that amounted to torture. The two men, who are now in Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. military prison on Cuba, brought the case against Poland for failing to prevent their illegal detention and torture and for failing to prosecute those responsible. The court ruled that Poland had violated Articles of the European Convention on Human Rights that cover torture, the right to liberty, and the right to an effective remedy for victims of crime. It ordered Poland to pay al-Nashiri 100,000 euros in damages and 130,000 euros to Zubaydah. Thursday's decision puts the Polish government in an awkward position. It has a close security relationship with the United States and Polish officials have always denied the existence of any CIA jail on their territory. Marcin Wojciechowski, a spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry, said in a Twitter post officials were analysing the ruling and only after that will make a public comment. The ruling may also have implications for other European states alleged to have hosted CIA prisons: similar cases have been lodged with the court in Strasbourg against Romania and Lithuania. INTERROGATION The court ruling did not cover the United States, which is outside its jurisdiction. The administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush began the extraordinary rendition programme to deal with suspected al Qaeda operatives, many of them captured in the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. Keeping the detainees on foreign soil meant they were not entitled to the protection afforded under U.S. law. The Bush administration said that was important because it gave it more scope to interrogate the suspects and extract information which helped avert violent attacks by militants. The U.S. government says Abu Zubaydah ran a camp in Afghanistan that trained some of those who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities. It accuses al-Nashiri of directing an attack on the U.S. warship Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000 that killed 17 sailors. The rendition programme has came under fire from human rights advocates who alleged the United States was using it to trample on internationally-recognised rights to a fair trial and to humane treatment. President Barack Obama signed an order ending the use of the CIA jails after taking office in 2009. Obama's administration has however declined to launch an investigation and has not prosecuted any U.S. officials for their role in the programme. Rights activists say the Senate report, combined with the legal cases in Europe, may force the United States government to give a public account of how the programme operated. The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has written a report on the programme. The committee's chair said the report uncovered shocking brutality against detainees. The report is classified, but the committee has voted to release parts of it. (Additional reporting by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
