Lithuanian MPs skeptical about need for new parlt probe into CIA prison

VILNIUS – Members of the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defense (CNSD) are skeptical about the need for a new parliamentary inquiry after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday ruled for the second time that a secret CIA prison had operated in Lithuania. 

"We'll discuss this, but I doubt it's worthwhile," Conservative MP Laurynas Kasciunas, the CNSD chairman, told BNS on Tuesday.

"I'd like to talk to the previous investigators. I'm not sure whether a new inquiry would add value. We need to look at the topic in more detail," he said. 

Dainius Gaizauskas of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union also said that he did not see the point of a new inquiry. 

Gaizauskas, the CNSD vice-chairman, said the secret prison story could only be looked into as part of a broader investigation into the activities of the so-called "statesmen's clan" if one were launched.

The ECHR ruled back in 2018 that Lithuania had hosted a secret CIA prison for terror suspects between 2005 and 2066 and that Abu Zubaydahl, a Saudi national, had been held there.

The Strasbourg court ruled on Tuesday that Mustafa al-Hawsawi, another Saudi national, had been also unlawfully held at the site and awarded him 100,000 euros.

The CNSD said after its parliamentary inquiry in 2009 that it had found no evidence that CIA detainees had been brought to Lithuania, but admitted that conditions for doing had been present.

Lithuania claims that the premises in Antaviliai, near Vilnius, were to be used as an intelligence support center rather than a prison. The country says that the suspicious planes transported communications equipment, not people, to Lithuania.

The US Senate's report on the use of torture by the CIA of terror suspects in secret detention centers in the wake of the 9/11 attacks did not name any specific countries, but human rights activists believe that the site referred to as "Violet" in the report was located in Lithuania. This evidence was also used by the ECHR.

According to the Senate report, the site had been in operation since early 2005 and was closed in 2006 when Lithuanian officials refused to admit al-Hawsawi to a local hospital.