Lithuania will fully implement the latest ruling by the European Court of Human Rights over an alleged CIA secret detention facility on its territory, the Justice Ministry said Wednesday, even as senior officials continued to deny that such a prison ever operated in the country.
“Lithuania will implement the ECHR decision in its entirety,” Justice Ministry spokeswoman Božena Zaborovska-Zdanovič said.
Last week, the Strasbourg-based court awarded 30,000 euros to Saudi national Abd Al-Rahim Hussein al-Nashiri after finding he had been unlawfully detained at a secret CIA facility in Lithuania. The court also ordered Lithuanian authorities to seek assurances from the United States that al-Nashiri would not face the death penalty.
Zaborovska-Zdanovič said Lithuania would submit the request to US authorities through diplomatic channels but did not provide further details. She also said the government would not seek a referral of the case to the ECHR’s Grand Chamber, meaning the judgment will become final in the coming months.
Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius also said Wednesday that he saw no need for any additional investigation into the alleged detention site.
According to his spokesman, Gedas Salyga, Lithuania has already conducted a parliamentary inquiry and prosecutors continue to carry out a pretrial investigation coordinated by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
“The prime minister sees no need for additional actions,” Salyga said.
President Gitanas Nausėda has likewise said he sees no reason to reopen the matter, although he has said court judgments must be respected. He has also suggested Lithuanian authorities should discuss how to implement the requirement to seek assurances from Washington, saying such a request could be interpreted as interference in another country’s internal affairs.
The Prosecutor General’s Office confirmed Wednesday that the criminal investigation, first opened in 2010 and reopened in 2015, remains ongoing. Prosecutors said, however, that despite repeated requests for legal assistance, they have not received significant information from the United States or other partner countries.
The ECHR has repeatedly ruled that Lithuania hosted a secret CIA detention facility.
In 2018, the court found that a secret prison operated in Lithuania in 2005 and 2006, where Saudi national Abu Zubaydah was held. In 2024, it awarded 100,000 euros to Saudi national Mustafa al-Hawsawi over his unlawful detention.
Lithuanian authorities have consistently rejected the court’s findings, arguing they are based largely on evidence gathered by human rights organisations rather than official institutional investigations.
Lithuania has maintained before the ECHR that a facility in Antaviliai, near Vilnius, functioned as an intelligence support centre rather than a prison and that aircraft linked to the CIA transported communications equipment, not detainees.
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