By Christina Berger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
WARSAW, Poland — The Open Society Justice Initiative urged Polish prosecutors last week to investigate the treatment of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the man accused of planning the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, at a CIA prison located in Poland. Amrit Singh, a senior legal officer with Open Society Justice Initiative, stated that al-Nashiri was the first CIA detainee to take legal action in Poland and expressed hope that Poland would launch a serious investigation into the treatment of detainees in their country in a continuing “quest for accountability.”
Al-Nashiri’s lawyers in Poland and the U.S. have made similar statements concerning their claim that Poland should do what they assert the U.S. refuses to. ”The American justice system has failed Mr. al-Nashiri,” said Nancy Hollander, al-Nashiri’s lawyer in the United States. ”The U.S. government has yet to provide any accountability for the illegal imprisonment or horrific torture to which U.S. agents have subjected him for almost a decade. Therefore, we are seeking to intervene in the investigation in Poland in the hopes that a court finally will recognize the injustice he has suffered.”
In response, the Polish government said that state prosecutors are already broadly investigating Poland’s possible role in the CIA’s global prison network. Jerzy Mierzewski, a prosecutor in Warsaw, stated that al-Nashiri’s petition does not necessarily require a separate investigation, but could be scrutinized as part of his office’s broader investigation.
Al-Nashiri claims he was imprisoned without a court proceeding, smuggled across borders, and then tortured in a manner violating the “most basic rules of the Geneva Convention.” He is still detained in Guantanamo today.
According to the AP, former U.S. intelligence officials speaking on the condition of anonymity have confirmed that al-Nashiri was taken to Poland’s CIA prison–code-named “Quartz”–before it was shut down in late 2003. Aleksander Kwasniewski, Poland’s president from 1995-2005, claims he was unaware of a CIA prison in Poland and Leszek Miller, Poland’s former prime minister, has denied that a CIA prison in Poland ever existed.
For more information, please see:
WARSAW BUSINESS JOURNAL — Prosecutors to investigate ‘CIA torture’ in Poland — 24 September 2010
AFP — USS Cole suspect wants probe of CIA sites in Poland — 22 September 2010
AP — Poles Urged to Probe CIA Prison Acts — 21 September 2010
VOICE OF AMERICA– Rights Group Seeks Polish Probe of CIA Detainee’s Treatment — 21 September 2010
