CIA prison investigation

The prosecutor's office is investigating allegations that there was a CIA prison on Polish soil, at which Al-Qaeda suspects were questioned and possibly tortured. According to media reports, a classified note that proves the existence of the prison has surfaced.

Polish media reported that a classified document written by the Polish secret service proved the CIA had operated a base in Poland. According to Gazeta Wyborcza's sources, the note was written at some time between 2005 and 2006 in response to aWashington Post article about CIA prisons in Europe.

"I am not familiar with such a note and I don't think Prime Minister Donald Tusk is either," Sławomir Nowak of the PM's Chancellery told Tok FM radio. "But the premier asked the justice minister to clarify this matter and the country's prosecutor's office is investigating the potential existence of the CIA prison."

The media have long speculated that the base was operational between 2002 and 2005, during the leftist SLD-led government and Aleksander Kwaśniewski's tenure as president. Kwaśniewski and both prime ministers of that government have denied any knowledge of a prison.

However, according to a report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, then-President Kwaśniewski, then-National Security Bureau head Marek Siwiec, then-Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and former Military Intelligence Services head Marek Dukaczewski were all "persons [who could] be held accountable" for the alleged prison.