Polish prosecutors investigate newspaper for leaking state secrets in report on CIA prison

WARSAW, Poland —A newspaper is investigated by Polish prosecutors because of leakage of some state secrets from a CIA prison that functioned in Poland eight years ago.

The Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported on Monday that a prosecutor had to abandon three-year of investigation into the CIA site, where he contrived to bring criminal charges against Polish politicians who were in power at that time.


Adam Borzyszkowski, a prosecutor in Gdansk, declared that his office would question the reporter and the editors working at that newspaper about the “state secrets being leaked”.

Former CIA officials have said to The Associated Press that the prison functioned from December 2002 until the fall of 2003 and the prisoners were questioned there. The Council of Europe and the United Nations have also declared that they have prove that the site existed.

However, Polish officials in power at the time vehemently deny the existence of that site.

The issue is very important because any Polish involvement can signify a violation of European conventions and laws.

The international pressure determined Poland to open an investigation into the matter in 2008 for making clear whether Polish leaders abused their powers by permitting Americans to operate the secret CIA site and what exactly happened there.

One of two prosecutors, Jerzy Mierzewski, was replaced after three years of working on the case.

He wanted to clarify whether torture took place in Poland and what political interference was behind his removal. The authorities deny this.

Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Mierzewski had tried to charge key Polish leaders in power in 2002 with crimes against humanity and with breaking Poland’s constitution for permitting the site to operate.

Jozef Pinior, a former European Parliament member facilitated the parliament’s investigation of the matter declaring that a document is signed by the Prime Minister Leszek Miller to regulate" the functioning of a CIA prison in Poland.”

Miller tried to deny everything and accused the newspaper of “inviting al-Qaida” to Poland with its report.