European court slams Poland for helping in CIA renditions

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that Poland broke the European human rights convention by allowing the CIA to run a secret jail on its territory.

The judges said Poland had co-operated with the illegal transfers of the two suspects in 2002-2003, allowing the men to be interrogated in a CIA secret prison known as a “black site” on its territory.

Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian-born Saudi national, was arrested in Pakistan and Saudi-born Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri was arrested in Dubai.

The two men, who are now in the US-run prison Guantanamo in Cuba brought the case against Poland for failing to prevent their illegal detention and torture and for failing to prosecute those responsible.

The European court, based in Strasbourg, France, 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.

The Polish government was also ordered to pay al-Nashiri 100,000 euros in damages and 130,000 euros to Zubaydah.

Poland has a close security relationship with the United States and Polish officials have always denied the existence of any CIA jail on their soil.

Extraordinary rendition or irregular rendition refers to the apprehension and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another in order to employ torture for the purpose of interrogation. President Bill Clinton initiated the program, which was continued and expanded under the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.