Justice Minister about charges in CIA secret prison investigation

The HFHR requested Justice Minister Jarosław Gowin to name information or circumstances which allowed him to assess the evidence collected in the investigation of CIA secret prisons in Poland on the basis of which a decision on indicting former Head of Intelligence Agency Zbigniew Siemiątkowski was taken.

In early February, Minister Gowin said, while on the air of Polish Radio Channel 1: “Let me remind the audience that Poland is the only country in which the allegations of hosting CIA secret prisons were investigated with formal charges having been lodged by the prosecution service. It seems that a decision was taken hastily because once the investigation was taken over by the higher-level Prosecutor’s Office in Cracow, these initial accusations against, for instance, Mr Siemiątkowski, proved to be ill-grounded. This is also an indication that this case needs be addressed with extreme restraint”.

Noting a clandestine nature of the pending investigation and the fact that the offices of the Prosecutor General and the Minister of Justice are no longer held by the same person, the HFHR asked the Minister to indicate information or circumstances which guided his assessment of the evidence.