The European Court of Human Rights has made Poland the first EU country to be found guilty of cooperating with the CIA in its torture of terror suspects, violating the Convention on Human Rights. Despite government silence about the case, the court was aided by the work of NGOs, including the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, which collected and shared documents on Poland's involvement.

Poland “enables” CIA transfers, torture

Saudi national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Saudi-born Palestinian Abu Zubaydah were initially detained in Pakistan before being transported to rendition sites in Poland. The two were subjected to torture methods that have become synonymous with CIA tactics, including lengthy confinement in a small box and repeated waterboarding.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri filed his application to the European Court of Human Rights in 2011. Mr. al-Nashiri claimed to have been tortured in a CIA black site in Poland between 2002 and 2003. In his application to the ECtHR, he alleged, among other things, that Poland had violated the prohibition of torture and his right to a fair trial. In 2013, Abu Zubaydah, who is presently detained in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, submitted a similar application to the court.

The Court of Human Rights has now ruled that Poland enabled the detention and torture of the two applicants, violating the Convention on Human Rights. It held that Poland had also enabled the CIA to transfer the applicants abroad despite them being exposed to a risk of further ill-treatment and illegal detention. The ECtHR determined that the two were denied the right to a fair trial and the right to personal freedom and safety. The court also criticized the Polish government for its lack of cooperation during the case, which constituted a breach of Article 38 of the Convention on Human Rights.

“Short-sighted strategy”

“The judgments are as good as they could be,” said Dr. Adam Bodnar, deputy president of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. “The Strasbourg court has not been fully informed by the [Polish] government, so it accepted all the arguments presented by the applicants. The government saw it coming. If the authorities think that ignoring different international institutions makes the world forget about the cases of secret prisons, then this judgment shows what a short-sighted strategy this was.”

A UN report has expressed a suspicion that during the years 2003-2005, eight suspected terrorists had been detained in the village of Kiejkuty, Poland, and Polish authorities had set up a team of intelligence agents answering directly to US operatives. Yet despite this report and others from non-governmental organizations like HFHR, the government has remained quiet on the true nature of their involvement with the CIA, even in front of the Court of Human Rights.

HFHR documents help court establish Poland’s guilt

“The court has referred to an amicus curiae brief of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and documents which the Foundation had managed to obtain,” said Irmina Pacho, HFHR’s lawyer.

In 2010, HFHR revealed records from Poland’s border guard showing that between December 2002 and September 2003, seven Gulfstream aircraft had transported 20 individuals between Afghanistan, Dubai and Morocco and Szczytno-Szymany Airport in Poland, near the CIA black site. It is believed that these planes were used by the CIA to transport captives specifically for their so-called special rendition program.

An inquiry into CIA secret prisons in Poland has been ongoing for more than six years. During that time, the investigation was transferred from the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw to its counterpart in Kraków and extended ten times.

“According to the Strasbourg court, the investigation conducted in this case was ineffective,” Ms. Pacho said.

The ECtHR awarded al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah 100,000 euros each as compensation for moral injury.