Lithuanian govt holds consultations on ECHR’s CIA prison ruling

Abu Zubaydah, suspected CIA jail in Antaviliai
DELFI montažas

A decision on the issue is due in the second half of August.

“It’s a very sensitive case. We are, therefore, consulting with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Justice. The final decision will be made in the second half of August,” Karolina Bubnytė, the Lithuanian government’s representative at the Strasbourg-based ECHR, told BNS Lithuania on Monday.

A first institutional meeting on the matter was held last week but no decisions were made then.

The ECHR ruled on May 31 that Lithuania hosted a secret CIA prison for terror suspects in 2005 to 2006. It also ordered Lithuania to pay 130,000 euros to Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi Arabia-born Palestinian who is currently held at the Guantanamo base, in compensation for his arbitrary detention in Lithuania.

US officials say that the man was is a member of the Al Qaeda and was involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Representatives of the Lithuanian government tried to convince the court that the premises in Antaviliai, near Vilnius, were meant for an intelligence support center and that the planes which caused suspicions brought equipment, not prisoners, to Lithuania.

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