Warsaw has paid €230,000 to two former inmates of CIA “black site” prisons, which used to be on Poland’s territory – a move that has raised questions in the country.
“Poland has fulfilled the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights,” Deputy Foreign Minister RafaÅ‚ Trzaskowski said on Thursday, RIA Novosti reports. He said that money had been sent to one victim’s bank account. The other’s share had been transferred to his court deposit, as he is under international sanctions.
The European Court of Human Rights ruled in July 2014 that Poland must pay compensation to the two terror suspects: Palestinian Abu Zubaydah and Saudi Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who were held and tortured in CIA-run detention centers in Poland between 2002 and 2003. The court set this Saturday as the deadline for the payments.
The two men are now being held in America’s Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. They are to receive €100,000 each for psychological damage, plus Zubaydah is due an additional €30,000 in court expenses.
Warsaw’s decision to pay up raised questions in Poland. Opposition lawmaker Witold Waszczykowski, cited by AP, said:
“I think we shouldn’t pay, we shouldn’t respect this judgment. This is a case not between us and them — it’s between them and the United States government.”