AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
Time to come clean on secret CIA prison in Poland
(Brussels, 12 June 2013) Amnesty International has pressed Poland and the European Union to ensure that the country urgently investigates long-standing accusations that it hosted a CIA-run secret prison where suspects were tortured between 2002 and 2005.
This call coincides with the launch of a new Amnesty International report, Unlock the truth: Poland’s involvement in CIA secret detention, on Poland’s role in the US-led rendition and secret detention programmes.
“Although the Polish investigation is shrouded in secrecy, a lot of information is already in the public domain. Many say it’s more than enough to indict former officials and intelligence officers,” said Nicolas Beger, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office. “The EU must turn up the heat on Poland and any other EU countries implicated in the CIA-led secret detention and rendition programmes.”
The report explores the quest for accountability in Poland. It stresses the country’s duty to investigate and prosecute alleged perpetrators of crimes under international law such as torture and enforced disappearance, including complicity in these felonies.
Poland has been under the spotlight since 2005, and has long been accused of hosting a CIA-operated secret detention facility where suspects were held and tortured between 2002 and 2005. In March 2008, the Polish authorities opened a criminal investigation which has suffered repeated delays, with “national security” being used to justify the secrecy shrouding the investigation.
During the investigations, two men, Adb al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Zayb al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) were granted victim status. The report also refers to a third man, Walid bin Attash, who was allegedly held in a secret detention site in Poland in 2003. All three are currently detained in Guantánamo. Adb al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Walid bin Attash await trial by military commission.
For more information please contact:
Peter Clarke
Media & Communications Officer
European Institutions Office
Amnesty International
Tel: +32 (0) 2 548 2773