Poland denies Council of Europe accusations on CIA prisons
(WARSAW) - The Polish authorities on Friday denied accusations in a Council of Europe report that the former communist bloc country and now EU member housed secret CIA prisons between 2003 and 2005.
"There were no secret bases in Poland," foreign ministry spokesman Robert Szaniawski told AFP.
"There is no evidence to back up these accusations. I can only express my regret that Poland once again stands publicly accused," Szaniawski aid.
A report by Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty, which was made public Friday, said Poland and Romania housed secret CIA prisons between 2003 and 2005, in full knowledge of the two countries' presidents.
"There is now enough evidence to state that secret detention facilities run by the CIA did exist in Europe from 2003 to 2005, in particular in Poland and Romania," said the report.
The report said that Aleksander Kwasniewski, who, as president, took Poland into the European Union in May 2004, knew about the prison allegedly on Polish soil.
"We have sufficient grounds to declare that the highest state authorities were aware of the CIA's illegal activities on their territories," it said.
Kwasniewski denied all the accusations against himself and Poland contained in the Council of Europe report.
"I deny this information," the former president of Poland, whose second term ended in December 2005, said on public television.
"We cooperate very closely with the United States... in addition to political and military cooperation, our secret services work together closely.
"But I categorically deny information that says that Poland housed secret prisons and that I was aware of this or approved of anything of the sort," he said.
The prisons at Stare Kiejkuty in northeastern Poland and in a "secure zone" in southeast Romania were part of a "global spider's web" of detention and illegal transfers of suspects spun out around the world by the United States and its allies after the September 11, 2001 attacks, the report said.
Since the accusations first surfaced last year that Poland housed secret CIA prisons, Polish officials have strenuously denied them.
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