“It is clear from the information provided by the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Cracow that a written order on presenting the charges was issued in respect of one person”, says Irmina Pacho, HFHR lawyer. She continues saying: “It is the first time the Prosecutor’s Office has officially confirmed this information”.
The inquiry into alleged CIA prisons in Poland has been conducted since 2008. First, it was in the hands of the Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw only to be handed over to its counterpart in Cracow in February 2012. The prosecution service has since been investigating whether Polish authorities approved the establishment of secret CIA prisons. Another question to be resolved is whether or not any Polish senior officials abused their powers by consenting to the alleged use of torture against terror suspects held at CIA detention sites in Poland. The prosecution service has sent four requests for legal aid to the US Department of Justice, but no positive response has been received as of yet.
The aggrieved party status was awarded to three persons who allege they were detained in Poland – Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national, Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian and Walid bin Attash, a Yemeni national.
In December 2013 the European Court of Human Rights heard the joined cases of Al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah v. Poland. The applicants claim that they were detained and tortured in a secret CIA facility in Poland.
