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Investigators ask for CIA prison probe deadline extension

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 29.01.2014 12:58
Prosecutors leading Poland's investigation into an alleged CIA prison where terrorist suspects were held and tortured have asked for another extension to the probe.

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The investigation, opened in 2008, was to conclude on 11 February, though now the Krakow-based lawyers have asked the attorney general to extend the deadline to 11 June.

Prosecutor spokesman Piotr Kosmaty has told the PAP news agency that the delay is being caused by the fact that investigators are "still waiting for legal assistance from US authorities".

The investigation includes proceedings against Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, the former Polish intelligence chief at the time of the allegations.

Last week the Washington Post reported that anonymous sources among former CIA operatives told them that 15 million dollars in cash was handed over to Polish intelligence officers by the agency in the 2002 to 2003 period as part of a deal where a so-called 'black site' in north east Poland could be used to intern and torture Al-Qaeda suspects.

Polish prime minister during the period when the alleged CIA prison was in operation, Leszek Miller, again dismissed the allegations, referring to the latest Washington Post reports as being something out of a "Hollywood movie".

Attorney general Andrzej Seremet said following the Washington Post report that "we will review the materials [collated by the investigation] and see what direction it is going in and what other steps are necessary to compete it".

The European Court of Human Rights begun a hearing in December, brought by Saudi Arabian national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, and Palestinian-born Abu Zubaydah, who say they were brought to a CIA prison near a remote airfield in Poland in 2002. (pg)

tags: cia prisons
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