Lithuania continues pre-trial investigation into alleged CIA prison

Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office has confirmed it is continuing a pre-trial investigation into the alleged operation of a CIA prison in the country two decades ago, where detainees filed human rights complaints against the state, LRT reports.

“The investigation is ongoing. No charges have been brought against anyone,” Elena Martinonienė, a spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General’s Office, told BNS.

The statement follows comments by President Gitanas Nausėda, who told BNS he trusts Lithuanian institutions’ assessments that no such prison existed in the country. Nausėda added he saw no need to re-examine the case, as previous investigations had already concluded that no CIA prison operated in Lithuania.

The prosecution first launched the investigation in 2010 but suspended it a year later. It was reopened in 2015 after a 2014 US Senate report—though it did not name specific sites—led human rights advocates to suspect Lithuania hosted a facility codenamed “violet.” The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has since relied on this evidence in multiple rulings against Lithuania.

Last week, the ECtHR ordered Lithuania to pay €30,000 in damages to Saudi national Abd al-Rahim Hussein al-Nashiri for his unlawful detention in a secret US-run prison in Lithuania and to seek assurances from Washington that he would not face the death penalty. This marks the third such ruling against Lithuania over the alleged CIA prison.

Nausėda stated that court decisions must be implemented but noted that further coordination would be needed regarding the obligation to seek assurances from the US. He reiterated his position that no CIA prison had operated in Lithuania.

Lithuanian authorities have consistently argued that the ECtHR’s findings are based on assessments by human rights organisations rather than official institutional investigations. In 2018, the ECtHR first ruled that Lithuania had hosted a secret CIA prison between 2005 and 2006, where Saudi citizen Abu Zubaydah was detained. In January 2024, the court awarded €100,000 in damages to another Saudi national, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, for unlawful detention.

Lithuania has maintained that the facilities in question, located in Antaviliai near Vilnius, were not a prison but a support centre for intelligence operations, and that the suspicious flights to Lithuania carried communications equipment rather than people.