European Court Rules Poland Violated Human Rights by Hosting CIA Torture Black Site

The European Court of Human Rights issues a landmark ruling finding that Poland violated the European Convention on Human Rights by allowing the CIA to operate a secret torture prison on its territory from December 2002 to September 2003. The court conclusively determines that Poland hosted a CIA black site where Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri were subjected to torture including waterboarding, stress positions, sleep deprivation, and other techniques that constitute inhuman and degrading treatment. The ruling represents the first international court judgment holding a European democracy accountable for complicity in the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program.

The court finds that Polish authorities knew or should have known that the CIA facility was being used to torture detainees in violation of Poland’s obligations under international law. The CIA operated the black site at a Polish intelligence training facility in the remote Stare Kiejkuty area, conducting some of the program’s most extreme torture sessions. Zubaydah was held and tortured in Poland from December 2002 to September 2003, where his waterboarding and torture continued after initial sessions at the CIA’s Thailand black site. Al-Nashiri was held in Poland for several months in 2003, subjected to waterboarding and stress positions so severe that interrogators feared permanent injury.

The ECHR orders Poland to pay 100,000 euros to each victim in damages, though both men remain detained at Guantanamo Bay without trial more than a decade after the ruling. The court states that by enabling the CIA to detain and torture individuals on its territory, Poland violated Article 3 of the Convention (prohibition of torture), Article 5 (right to liberty), Article 8 (right to privacy), and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy). The judgment emphasizes that Poland’s cooperation with the CIA torture program cannot be justified by national security or counterterrorism needs—the prohibition on torture is absolute.

Former Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who served from 1995 to 2005, publicly acknowledges after the ruling that he authorized the secret CIA facility, claiming he believed it was necessary for Poland’s security relationship with the United States following 9/11. He expresses regret but insists Polish officials were assured by the CIA that interrogations would comply with international law—a claim contradicted by the court’s findings that Polish intelligence officials were aware of the torture. Polish prosecutors open criminal investigations into officials who facilitated the black site, but no prosecutions result.

The Polish ruling is followed by similar ECHR judgments against Romania and Lithuania in May 2018, finding both countries also violated human rights law by hosting CIA black sites. Romania operated a facility from September 2003 to November 2005; Lithuania from February 2005 to March 2006. The courts order each country to pay damages to victims, but none of the European governments prosecutes its own officials for complicity in torture, and no country exercises universal jurisdiction to prosecute American officials for the torture committed on their soil.

The rulings establish definitive legal findings that the CIA torture program violated international law and that European democracies were complicit in war crimes. However, the judgments result in no meaningful accountability—neither for CIA officials who designed and implemented the torture, nor for European officials who provided territory and support. The U.S. refuses to extradite any CIA personnel, and European countries decline to prosecute their own officials. The victims receive modest financial compensation while remaining imprisoned without trial at Guantanamo. The cases demonstrate how international human rights law, even when violated by clear court findings, lacks enforcement mechanisms when perpetrators are powerful states. The black site rulings serve primarily as historical documentation of war crimes rather than vehicles for justice.