Guantanamo Bay prisoner sues Lithuania over CIA ‘black site’
- Second such case after an EU court ruled last year that Lithuania was involved in a covert US government detainment and interrogation programme
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A Saudi held in the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba has filed a lawsuit against Lithuania alleging that he was tortured at a secret CIA jail in the Baltic state, a senior Lithuanian government official said on Monday.
Mustafa al-Hawsawi, 50, has petitioned the European court that last year found Lithuania complicit in a secret CIA programme and ordered the EU member to compensate another terror suspect.
“Last week, the government received the Hawsawi petition through the European Court of Human Rights,” said Deputy Justice Minister Irma Gudziunaite.
She said Lithuania, a staunch US ally that joined the EU and Nato in 2004, had until March 22 to submit its position.
The court, based in Strasbourg, France, ruled last year that Lithuania hosted a secret prison in 2005-2006.
The court ordered Vilnius to pay €100,000 (US$113,000) in damages to Abu Zubaydah, another Guantanamo detainee suspected of being a top Palestinian operative for al-Qaeda.
Lithuanian officials, who deny the existence of any secret CIA jails on their territory, told the court a building in Antavilia on the outskirts of Vilnius suspected of being such a site was “an intelligence support centre”.
A pre-trial investigation into the allegations began in Lithuania since 2015 and is continuing.
The Baltic state says the United States has refused to answer questions from Lithuanian prosecutors or provide requested information.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled that fellow EU and Nato member states Poland and Romania also allowed the unlawful imprisonment of terror suspects more than a decade ago.
