Poland extends CIA prison probe

photo - wikipedia

"The attorney general has considered the request by prosecutors in Krakow for an extension of the proceedings as reasonable," attorney general spokesman Mateusz Martyniuk has told the PAP news agency.

The investigation was planned to end on 11 February but Attorney General Andrzej Seremet has now extended the probe to 11 June.

On Tuesday, prosecutors in Krakow, where the investigation is taking place, said they had asked for legal assistance from "three European countries", though refused to name which ones.

Aside from Poland, allegations have been made against Romania, Bulgaria and Lithuania that they were part of a network of secret CIA 'black sites' where Al-Qaeda suspects were held and subjected to 'enhanced interrogation techniques' by CIA operatives in 2002 and 2003.

Prosecutor spokesman in Krakow, Piotr Kosmaty, said that four requests for assistance had been sent to the United States, with one being rejected on national security grounds.

Human Rights Watch made the original allegations in 2005, claiming that terror suspects were held by the CIA at a site in Stare Kiejkuty, north east Poland, near Szymany military airport, where CIA leased planes had been transporting prisoners in and out of Poland.

The Washington Post reported last month that sources had told them that CIA operatives had passed over 15 million dollars in cash in cardboard boxes to Polish intelligence agents as part of the deal to allow a villa in Stare Kiejkuty to be used as a 'black site' to hold rendition ed prisoners. (pg)