„World Press Photo“ paroda. Apsilankykite
Bilietai
2012 04 10

European Parliament to continue CIA prison investigation in Lithuania

A delegation of the European Parliament is coming to Lithuania in the end of April to look into the alleged operation of a secret prison of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the country.
Jojimo bazė Antaviliuose
Jojimo bazė Antaviliuose / „Lietuvos žinių“ nuotr.

During a visit on 25-27 April, members of the EP Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs are drafting a report about potentially unlawful detention and transportation of detainees in Europe by the CIA.

The delegation is scheduled to meet with President Dalia Grybauskaitė, ministers of foreign affairs, internal affairs, national defense and justice, members of parliamentary Committees of National Security and Defense and Foreign Affairs, representatives of the State Security Department, Civil Aviation Administration and Human Rights Monitoring Institute.

The list of officials the EP delegation wants to meet also includes Deputy Prosecutor General Darius Raulušaitis, former prosecutor Algimantas Kliunka and former director of the State Security Department, Arvydas Pocius.

The MEPs also want to visit the assumed detention sites in Lithuania.

In the end of March, the committee held hearings at the European Parliament on the participation of European countries in the secret US program of transportation and detention of suspected terrorists.

During hearings held in the European Parliament, representatives of Amnesty International and Reprieve said that European countries lack political will to carry out in-depth investigations despite new evidence emerging in recent years.

Lithuania launched an investigation into allegations following reports by U.S. TV channel ABC News in 2009 about a secret CIA prison situated in Antaviliai area near Vilnius. A parliamentary probe carried out in Lithuania showed that CIA-related planes entered Lithuania's airspace in 2003-2006 several times. The investigations failed, however, to present any conclusive evidence if any suspected terrorist 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.

Former heads of Lithuania's secret services have ruled out presence of a CIA prison in Lithuania.

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