STRASBOURG, France
The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Thursday that Poland violated the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the ‘extraordinary rendition’ by the CIA of two terrorism suspects to secret detention sites in the European country.
Saudi Arabian citizen Abd al-Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al-Nashiri and Palestinian national Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn brought the case related to "their torture, ill-treatment and incommunicado detention in Poland while in U.S. custody; their transfer from Poland; and Poland’s failure to conduct an effective investigation into those events", the court said.
The duo, detained in 2002, is considered by the U.S. authorities to be key members of the terrorist network al-Qaeda and are currently detained in the Internment Facility at the United States’ Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
The Strasbourg-based court held in particular that the “applicants had been subjected to acts of torture during their detention in Poland and that the Polish Government had failed to comply with their obligations under Article 38, as they had refused to provide the Court with certain items of evidence”.
The court ordered Poland to pay each applicant €100,000 [US$134,700] in respect of non-pecuniary damage and to pay Husayn an additional €30,000 in respect of costs and expenses.
The ECHR further ruled that “Poland should seek to remove the risk that Mr al-Nashiri might be sentenced to death, by seeking assurances from the U.S. authorities that such [a] penalty will not be imposed”.
www.aa.com.tr/en
