[JURIST] The US is hindering Poland’s investigation into a secret CIA [official website] prison there, a Polish prosecutor said Saturday. Piotr Kosmaty, spokesman for the Appeals Prosecutor’s Office in Krakow that is doing the investigation, said that the US has ignored requests for documents relevant to the investigation. The Polish investigators were interested in a report by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence [official website] summarizing CIA prison locations and practices. In particular there were facts in the report that suggested a secret CIA prison existed in Poland from 2002-2003 where terrorist suspects were treated very harshly. Kosmaty said that the Poland has asked the US for the full non-redacted version of the report but have received no response. Previous requests for other documents and opportunities to question the alleged victims, who are currently being held in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST backgrounder], were also ignored. The US claims that releasing such documents would be against national interest. In addition to the Polish prison, there have been reports of other CIA “black sites” in other parts of Poland, Romania and Lithuania.

Poland has been accused of hosting a CIA-operated secret prison, where terrorism suspects were held and tortured between 2002 and 2005. An investigation [JURIST report] into the prison has been ongoing in Poland since 2008. The US has acknowledged its program of “extraordinary rendition,” which includes detention facilities around the world, to detain and question suspected al Qaeda militants. Amnesty International’s report, Unlock the truth: Poland’s involvement in CIA secret detention [report, PDF], outlines the search for accountability in Poland. The Polish investigation of the CIA “black site” has been conducted largely under cover of secrecy since it opened in 2008, whereby prosecutors have declined to disclose information related to the investigation or make its findings public. In November 2013 Poland formally requested that the European Court of Human Rights hold a hearing [JURIST report] regarding Poland’s complicity in the CIA secret detention facilities.