Polish Government presented its position in the case al-Nashiri vs. Poland

According to the information provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Polish Government presented to the European Court of Human Rights its position in the case al-Nashiri vs. Poland (application No 28761/11).

The Government of the Republic of Poland – pursuant to Rule 33(1) of the Rules of Court – filed a motion to limit public access to all case files on the grounds that their public disclosure could harm the interest of the pending pre-trial proceedings in Poland. The decision as to the method and scope of making the positions of the parties known to the general public will now be taken by the Court.

ECtHR, among other things, requested the Polish Government to confirm whether between 5 December 2002 and 6 June 2003 al-Nashiri was held in a secret prison in the territory of Poland. Poland has also been obliged to provide materials on the basis of which al-Nashiri was granted the status of an injured party in the proceedings conducted by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, and to provide information concerning the existence of an agreement between the governments of Poland and the United States with regard to establishing a CIA prison in Poland.

Al-Nashiri lawyers filed an application with the ECtHR in May last year. After that, in July 2012 the ECtHR communicated the case to the Polish Government. The charges raised in the application pertain mainly to inhuman treatment of the applicant in the secret prison in Stare Kiejkuty, his illegal transfer to a country where he faces a death sentence, as well as the ineffectiveness of Polish proceedings aimed at explaining the circumstances of al-Nashiri stay in Poland.