Lithuania’s ruling coalition and opposition remain divided over whether to launch a new parliamentary investigation into an alleged US Central Intelligence Agency detention site after the country suffered another defeat at the European Court of Human Rights.
Members of the ruling coalition argue that previous parliamentary and law enforcement inquiries have already examined the allegations, while opposition parties say a new investigation is needed to resolve unanswered questions and protect Lithuania’s reputation.
Orinta Leiputė, head of the largest faction of the ruling Social Democratic Party, rejected calls for a new inquiry, saying the issue had already been investigated by the Seimas Committee on National Security and Defence in 2009.
The allegations emerged that year after US broadcaster ABC News reported that eight terrorism suspects had allegedly been held at a black site near Vilnius between 2004 and 2005.
A parliamentary investigation launched in 2009 did not find any direct evidence of detentions, but concluded that conditions existed were in place for the CIA to operate a black site in Lithuania. The inquiry identified two possible locations in Vilnius and nearby Antaviliai, as well as several CIA-linked flights to Vilnius and Palanga.
Lithuanian prosecutors closed their investigation in 2011, saying there was no evidence that the Antaviliai facility had been used as a detention site. The case was reopened after a US Senate committee report on CIA detention and interrogation practices was declassified in 2014.
Agnė Širinskienė, head of the Democratic Union “For Lithuania” parliamentary faction, said the group had not formally considered the issue but questioned whether a new investigation would be useful.
Aušrinė Norkienė, deputy chair of the Lithuanian Farmers and Greens Union, said she had not formed a final position but questioned the need for a probe into events that took place more than two decades ago.
Opposition parties have pushed for renewed scrutiny. Laurynas Kasčiūnas, chairman of the Homeland Union-Lithuanian Christian Democrats, said a new investigation was needed, particularly to clarify the use of unaccounted funds referenced in the US Senate report. He called it a matter of Lithuania’s self-respect.
Remigijus Žemaitaitis, leader of the Nemunas Dawn party, said his faction would support reopening the investigation and expressed interest in joining a parliamentary commission to identify those involved in operating the alleged facility.
Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the opposition Liberal Movement, also backed a new inquiry, saying recent European Court of Human Rights rulings requiring Lithuania to compensate alleged detainees conflict with the official position of Lithuanian institutions and show that the issue remains unresolved.
Earlier this month, the ECHR ordered Lithuania to pay 30,000 euros to Saudi national Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Al-Nashiri over his alleged illegal detention at a secret US site in Lithuania. The court also ordered Lithuanian authorities to seek assurances from the United States that he would not face the death penalty. It was the third ECHR ruling against Lithuania over the alleged CIA detention program.
Lithuania has maintained before the court that the Antaviliai facility was an intelligence support centre, not a black site, and that flights linked to the site carried communications equipment rather than detainees.
However, a 2014 US Senate report on CIA torture at secret detention sites refers to a facility known as “Site Violet” that operated in 2005-2006. Although the report redacted the names of specific countries and officials, human rights groups have argued that the site was located in Antaviliai.
President Gitanas Nausėda said earlier this month that he trusted the conclusions of Lithuanian institutions that no CIA prison existed in the country. He said he saw no need to reopen the issue, arguing, inaccurately, that previous investigations had already determined that no CIA detention facility had operated in Lithuania.
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