The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is unlikely to change its ruling on secret Lithuania-hosted CIA prison where the United States held and interrogated terrorism suspects, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said on Thursday.
VILNIUS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th August, 2018) The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is unlikely to change its ruling on secret Lithuania-hosted CIA prison where the United States held and interrogated terrorism suspects, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said on Thursday.
Lithuania's representative at the ECHR said last week that the Baltic country would not appeal the court's ruling but Skvernelis said on Wednesday that Vilnius had switched its position.
"This is a decision of the government and we will use this chance. But it seems that we can admit that it would be quite complicated to hope that the court's decision will be different," Skvernelis told the Ziniu Radijas radio station.
The ECHR ruled in late May that Lithuania was complicit in CIA's secret rendition program which led to rights violations and arbitrary detention in CIA "black sites" of Al Qaeda (a terrorist organization banned in Russia) suspects, including Palestinian Abu Zubaydah.
Lithuania was ordered to pay 100,000 Euros (about $116,000) in damages to Zubaydah for allowing the CIA to subject him to an ill-treatment on the territory of the Baltic country.
The ECHR issued a similar ruling against Romania and Poland.
