Józef Pinior

The investigation into an alleged CIA black site in the Masovian village of Stare Kiejkuty has been extended by six months, a spokesperson for the Warsaw prosecutor's office confirms to Polish press agency PAP.

According to a source quoted by PAP, the prosecution requires additional evidence and is at present unable to conclude the investigation. Even though the exact nature of this evidence remains obscure, it is likely to include witness statements of the alleged victims. As Polish public TV reports, the prosecution filed a request for mutual legal assistance to the US to hear Abu Zubaida and Abd al Nashiri in this capacity, and are waiting for a reply. Both are currently held in Guantanamo.

The prosecution has already admitted that more than ten CIA flights landed in Szymany airport, which may also have carried prisoners. Whereas this fact is evident from flight plans that are now freely available on the internet, it is more difficult to establish whether prisoners were tortured inside a potential detention facility, in particular if both the alleged victims and perpetrators cannot be heard.

Poland is under increasing pressure to investigate fully whether the CIA operated secret torture and detention facilities in Stare Kiejkuty. As Peter Kemp predicted, the European Parliament has now intervened. In a resolution from the eighth of June it says that it:

"5. Reiterates its call to the US authorities to review the military commissions system to ensure fair trials, to close Guantánamo, to prohibit in any circumstances the use of torture, ill-treatment, incommunicado detention, indefinite detention without trial and enforced disappearances, and reminds the EU institutions and Member States of their duty not to collaborate in, or cover up, such acts prohibited by international, European and national law;"

"7. Calls on the EU and Member States authorities, as well as the US authorities, to ensure that full, fair, effective, independent and impartial inquiries and investigations are carried out into human rights violations and crimes under international, European and national law, and to bring to justice those responsible, including in the framework of the CIA extraordinary renditions and secret prisons programme;"

In the meantime, former MEP Józef Pinior reiterated his allegations against former members of the Polish government, claiming that there was a document signed by the then prime minister Leszek Miller regulating the operations of a secret CIA detention facility in Stare Kiejkuty, also defining the status of corpses inside the facility.

Prosecutors in the Northern Polish city of Gdansk have opened an investigation into the leaking of documents to Gazeta Wyborcza, effectively confirming their authenticity. These documents revealed that Jerzy Mierzewski, a Warsaw prosecutor, had planned to file charges of breach of the constitution, false imprisonment and assistance in crimes against humanity in a case surrounding alleged CIA detention and torture facilities in Stare Kiejkuty and rendition flights to and from Szymany airport in Masuria.

Former Polish PM Leszek Miller, who had been named as one of the persons authorizing a cooperation with the CIA by former MEP Józef Pinior, criticized the publication, calling journalists "useful idiots" who "invited al Qaida into the country".

The investigation is carried out in Gdansk (rather than in Warsaw), because it also concerns the dealings of Warsaw prosecutors.

The decision to remove Mierzewski from the case came shortly after lawyers acting for a Guantanamo detainee filed a complaint against Poland at the European Court of Human Rights, and shortly before President Obama visited the country.

For background reading please see this post, which also contains links to a Council of Europe investigation into the role of Poland in CIA rendition flights and international press coverage:

http://wlcentral.org/node/1849

For other WL Central coverage on the topic please see here.

According to Gazeta Wyborcza, Jerzy Mierzewski, the prosecutor investigating alleged CIA prisons on Polish territory, was removed from the case because he had planned to file charges of breach of the constitution, false imprisonment and assistance in crimes against humanity.

This move came shortly after a lawyer acting for a Guantanamo detainee filed a complaint against Poland at the European Court of Human Rights, and a week before President Obama's visit to Poland.

Recent days have seen a number of articles on alleged CIA rendition flights and prisons on Polish territory in the Polish press. These were also prompted by a statement former MEP Józef Pinior made to Gazeta Wyborcza, saying that there is a memorandum signed by former PM Leszek Miller regulating the operations of a planned CIA prison on Polish territory. Miller strongly denies this.

For other WL Central coverage on the topic please see here.