Abu Zubaydah v Lithuania: CIA Prison Program

28 October, 2011 - A human rights group has filed a lawsuit against Lithuania for its role in a CIA rendition program which allegedly involved the illegal detention and torture of “high-value detainee” Abu Zubaydah.

Zubaydah, who was initially captured by American and Pakistani special services in a raid in Pakistan in 2002, spent some of his time in custody in a secret detention center in Lithuania, according to the Interights group. The European country allegedly collaborated with the CIA on its program of secret prisons, which allowed suspects to be incarcerated and tortured outside American territory.

The Saudi national was rendered to Lithuania in 2005 along with a number of other prisoners, the Interights statement says. It adds that Lithuanian officials ignored “information indicating the serious nature of human rights violations occurring in the CIA-led rendition program.”

On Thursday, Interights filed a complaint in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over the failure of the Lithuanian government to prevent the alleged detention and torture as well as to conduct a proper criminal investigation into the secret CIA prison program on its soil. read more>>>

On 27 October 2011, INTERIGHTS, together with a team of U.S. lawyers, filed an application before the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Abu Zubaydah v Lithuania. The case concerns the responsibility of Lithuania for his enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment at a secret detention facility in Lithuania, and a number of other violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.

 

Abu Zubaydah v Lithuania: CIA Secret Prison Program