The report released on Tuesday was approved by EP Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, which visited Lithuania in April.
The MEPs said that some EU countries had still failed to fulfill its duty to investigate gross violations of human rights in connection with the CIA program of handover and detention. In addition to Lithuania, the report refers to Romania, Poland, and other countries.
Although the pre-trial investigation was carried out in Lithuania in 2010-2011, a number of unanswered questions in connection to CIA operations remains, the EP committee said.
"They are urging Lithuania's government institutions to fulfill its promise of resuming the investigation of Lithuania's participation in the CIA program in the light of the new facts about 2005 flights between Romania and Lithuania (with plane changes in Tirana) and 2006 flights between Lithuania and Afghanistan (via Cairo)," reads the press release.
"The Prosecutor General's Office is urged to provide documents to validate the conclusions forwarded to the MEPs, certifying that nobody was detained in the detention facilities in Lithuania," reads the document.
The draft report was approved by 50 members of the committee, two were against and five abstained. The report should go to plenary this fall.
During a visit to Lithuania in April, the EP delegation said it had additional questions to Lithuanian prosecutors who, in their turn, said they had ascertained no detentions in Lithuania.
At the same time, the MEPs said Lithuania could be an example for other European nations that could be involved in the secret program for suspected terrorists, which the US launched following terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001.
A parliamentary probe carried out in Lithuania in the end of 2009 specified two buildings in and near Vilnius, which could include secret detention facilities. The inquiry also showed that CIA-related planes entered Lithuania's airspace in 2003-2006 several times. The investigations failed, however, to identify if any suspected terrorists were actually brought to Lithuania.
Following the parliamentary investigation, Lithuanian prosecutors opened an investigation but terminated the probe last January, with prosecutor Mindaugas Dūda saying that there was no sufficient evidence to claim that premises in Vilnius and near the city had been equipped for detention of prisoners.
Lithuania's top officials say that with the US refusing to provide any information, Lithuania has done everything in its power in the investigation of the CIA prison allegations.
No new data
There is no new key information in connection to the alleged presence of the US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) secret detention centers on the Lithuanian soil, says Arvydas Anušauskas, chairman of the parliamentary National Security and Defense Committee.
In his opinion, there are no reasons for resuming the probe, as requested by a committee of the European Parliament.
On the other hand, the committee's decision gives Lithuania an opportunity to send additional questions to institutions of other countries.
"Lithuania has done everything it could with the information it had. So far, we have received no new key information. The investigation in Poland also failed to reveal any data that would be significant for Lithuania. Consequently, prosecutors might and should consider all calls it receives in connection to specific investigations and they will have to make decisions. My guess is that we could ask foreign institutions additional questions in line with the data we have; however, I fear it would only be formal correspondence, with answers known in advance. I mean the states that were transit countries in the flights specified in our parliamentary probe," Anušauskas told BNS on Tuesday.
Anušauskas, who headed a parliamentary probe in 2009, told BNS on Tuesday that the flights indicated as new data in the EP committee's conclusion had already been investigated by the Lithuanian parliamentary body and were known to the Prosecutor General's Office.
"The so-called new data were part of our investigation, we had learned about them from the Lithuanian Civil Aviation Administration, they (the EP committee) present it as new data, but it is not new, it is two years old and our prosecutors had it in their possession," he added.
"I realize that members of the EP committee had objectives to achieve but please note that during the meeting (in April) we established that the MEPs representing their countries – the countries had not started or carried out the investigations in any form, there were only promises that the MEPs would initiate the investigations in their home countries. I mean Portugal, Spain, Germany and some other countries - in this case I realize this has not been done," Anušauskas emphasized.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, too, expressed doubts on the need to resume the investigation into alleged CIA prisons in Lithuania without having additional information.
"I have not been informed of the existence of any additional information based on which the investigation should be resumed. Without additional information, the natural question as to what is the point of resuming the investigation arises," Kubilius told journalists on Wednesday.
All questions answered
Lithuania's Prosecutor General's Office says the investigation into alleged CIA prisons in Lithuania might be resumed after new fundamental circumstances emerge.
Lithuanian law enforcement institutions also say they have answered all questions by members of the European Parliament, but refuse to disclose the contents of communication.
"The discontinued investigation might be resumed after fundamental circumstances capable of determining the right resolution of the case emerge," the Prosecutor General's Office told BNS when asked to comment on calls by MEPs to resume the investigation and whether there was a basis for the resumption.
"The Prosecutor General's Office received a letter from members of the European Parliament on 6 June 2012, asking to provide information and copies of documents. The response was sent on 26 June 2012," the Office told BNS, refusing to disclose the contents of the response citing laws which prohibit revealing information related to discontinued pre-trial investigations.
