The legal move in Poland could spawn similar efforts in Romania and Lithuania, which former US intelligence officials and critics have identified as nations that hosted some of the CIA’s so-called black sites. Public outcry against the abandoned CIA program remains strong in Europe while lawyers for detainees and civil liberties activists have had limited success in US courts in shedding new light on the secret prisons.
“We hope that the prosecutor will heed this call for a serious investigation into Nashiri’s ill-treatment on Polish soil,’’ Singh said. “The quest for accountability for the CIA’s illegal rendition program must continue in Europe, especially as US courts appear to be closing their doors to victims of this program.’’
Polish prosecutors have already been examining the country’s involvement in a now-shuttered US system of secret prisons around the globe. Inside the black sites, terror detainees were exposed to harsh interrogation methods such as the simulated drowning technique of waterboarding — a practice that critics have called torture.
Prosecutor Jerzy Mierzewski in Warsaw said Pietrzak’s petition would probably be wrapped into his office’s overall probe.
“It does not require the opening of a separate investigation,’’ he said, adding that he still had to study the documents.
The prosecutors are investigating possible abuse of power by Polish public officials in connection with the closed CIA black site near the secluded Szymany airport in northeast Poland. Flight logs trace several landings of planes linked to the CIA there. Prosecutors have been looking into the site since 2008 but have not yet filed charges.
Polish media have reported that prosecutors are considering war crimes charges against former president Aleksander Kwasniewski and two other officials in connection with the CIA prison site. Kwasniewski, Poland’s president from 1995-2005, has said he was unaware of the CIA prison.
Leszek Miller, Poland’s prime minister at the time, earlier this month flatly denied the existence of any such facility, saying there were “no secret CIA prisons in Poland.’’
