MOSCOW, July 29 (RAPSI) – Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, has urged the EU countries to investigate the alleged operation of CIA-run torture facilities in Europe, often referred to as “black sites,” RIA Novosti announced on Monday.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on July 24 that Poland violated human rights by allowing the CIA to bring two prisoners to Poland in 2002.
Poland was one of the European participants in the US “extraordinary rendition” program for detaining al Qaeda suspects. It housed a facility where the US interrogated suspected al Qaeda operatives arrested after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
It is alleged that the prisoners in the CIA-run secret network of European prisons were subjected to harsh questioning, mock executions, waterboarding and other torture, including threats that their families would be arrested and sexually abused.
Similar cases have been lodged with the Strasbourg court against Romania and Lithuania.
The court ruled that Poland violated its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights to prevent torture, ensure the right to liberty, and to properly investigate the allegations of a crime committed on its territory.
“Human rights organizations rightfully demand that the Polish government carry out an efficient investigation into the alleged CIA-run prisons in its territory,” Dolgov writes on Twitter. “The other EU countries where the CIA had its torture facilities should do the same.”