“The ECHR issued its ruling; it is not favorable for Lithuania. The reputational damage has already been done”, the president said in a comment forwarded to BNS by her press service.
“We are committed to the European Convention on Human Rights and, therefore, we will have to comply with the judgment,” she added
The ECHR ruled earlier in the day that Lithuania and Romania hosted secret CIA detention facilities for terror suspects in the past decade.
The Strasbourg-based court ordered Lithuania to pay 130,000 euros to Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia who is now held at the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay.
“The Court concluded that Lithuania had hosted a secret CIA prison between February 2005 and March 2006, that Mr Husayn had been detained there, and that the domestic authorities had known the CIA would subject him to treatment contrary to the Convention,” the ECHR said in its ruling,” the ECHR said in a press release.
Justice Minister Elvinas Jankevičius said that Lithuania was considering appealing the judgement to the ECHR Grand Chamber.