However, according to the politician, starting a parliamentary investigation carries the risk of it being politicized.
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“It is obvious that if there are court decisions that Lithuania loses, then to say that nothing happened is impossible,” V. Sinkevičius told reporters on Saturday.
“An investigation is needed that would answer all questions and then we would have a very clear position. Because it is obvious now that there is a lack of information, that information appears in bits and pieces, and then even more additional questions arise for the public,” he said.
According to the MEP, this is how conspiracy theories are born, which are exploited by enemies spreading propaganda.
“A sign of a strong society and a strong state is not to be afraid to answer uncomfortable questions. Yes, this is an uncomfortable question, but we must not be afraid to answer it and, together with those answers, ensure that the same situation does not repeat itself in the future,” V. Sinkevičius assured.
After Lithuania lost another case at the ECHR, the opposition is convinced that a new parliamentary investigation into the CIA prison must be launched. Meanwhile, the ruling party believes that previous parliamentary and law enforcement investigations have provided answers to this.
The leader of the Democrats emphasized that a parliamentary investigation “always carries the risk of being politicized”.
“We should look at who would conduct that investigation, whether we can have an agreement between political parties on that investigation, and ultimately on the content, scope, and essence of the investigation. Because in this case, what should be additionally avoided is a politicized investigation that would lead to certain conclusions that might already be clear to someone for a long time,” V. Sinkevičius said. “In this case, it is clear that the key thing is the investigation by our law enforcement institutions.”
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BNS wrote that at the beginning of July, the Strasbourg court awarded Saudi Arabian citizen Abd Al Rahim Hussein Al-Nashiri 30 thousand euros for illegal detention in a secret American prison in Lithuania two decades ago and obliged the Lithuanian authorities to contact Washington to ensure that the terrorism suspect would not be sentenced to death.
This was the third similar ECHR decision in applicants’ cases against Lithuania.
The first time about a possible CIA detention center operating in Lithuania was reported in 2009 by the US television channel “ABC News”. It announced that eight terrorism suspects were imprisoned near Vilnius in 2004–2005.
In the same year, the Seimas National Security and Defense Committee, which conducted a parliamentary investigation, did not determine whether detained persons were brought to Lithuania, but stated that the conditions for transfer existed. During the parliamentary investigation, two objects were identified in Vilnius and near the capital in Antaviliai, where facilities for holding suspects could allegedly have been set up. Several CIA-related flights to Vilnius and Palanga, which took place in 2003–2006, were also identified.
Prosecutors had also started their investigation into this, but in 2011 they terminated it after not receiving data that the building in Antaviliai “would be related to the detention of arrested persons,” and that “the factual data obtained during the pre-trial investigation and all related witnesses questioned support a different purpose and use of the building.” It was also not established that persons suspected of terrorism were illegally imprisoned there.
In 2015, the pre-trial investigation was resumed, combining it with an investigation into illegal human trafficking across the state border, taking into account the US Senate Committee report declassified in 2014.
In ECHR cases, Lithuania provided explanations that the premises in Antaviliai, near Vilnius, operated not as a prison, but as an intelligence support center. The country stated that the suspicious planes transported not people, but communication equipment to Lithuania.
Meanwhile, the 2014 report published by the United States Senate on CIA torture of suspected terrorists in secret detention centers mentions a center called “Violet,” which operated in 2005–2006. Specific states and officials are classified in the document, but human rights defenders believe that this center operated in Lithuania, in Antaviliai, near Vilnius.
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