Lithuanian prosecutor accused in Guantanamo Bay case

Vilnius Regional Court has ruled that prosecutor unfoundedly refused to launch a pre-trial investigation into allegations that Mustafa al-Hawsawi was illegally transferred to and secretly detained and tortured in secret CIA detention centre in Lithuania in 2004-2006, says Human Rights Monitoring Institute (HRMI) in a statement.

In September last year HRMI and REDRESS submitted a complaint against prosecutors calling for an investigation into the allegations. The request was refused, and the NGOs appealed to Vilnius Circuit Court, which upheld the prosecutor's decision.

The higher instance court, however, overruled the judgement and found that prosecutors hastily refused to open an inquiry. The court believed that before making a categorical conclusion that there was no crime committed, the prosecutor should have tried to question al- Hawsawi, currently kept in detention in Guantanamo, and send requests to US institutions.

"This judgement is of great significance on national as well as international level," said HRMI's representative Meta Adutaviciute. "It is a huge step forward in protecting human rights Lithuania."

Al-Hawsawi has not been able to bring a complaint himself, or provide any information to the any organisation to bring a complaint on his behalf, because of strict classification rules in place in the United States. The complaint was therefore based on information obtained from public sources.