Prosecutors have requested the US give them access to two terrorist suspects held in Guantanamo Bay after they alleged that they were held and tortured in a secret CIA prison in Poland.

Prosecutor Robert Majewski has told Polish Radio that whether prosecutors will be allowed access to the plaintiffs  - Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah - depends on the American interpretation of relevant Polish-US legal cooperation agreements.

Last September, Polish lawyers representing Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri  - suspected of masterminding the attack of the USS Cole in October 2000 - filed a motion to the prosecution service in Poland calling for punishment of those guilty of imprisoning and torturing him. He was granted “victim status” by a court in Warsaw to continue his complaint of imprisonment.

The Obama administration said earlier this month that it is preparing to open military-commission proceedings at Guantanamo Bay against Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, in what will be the first new trial of a suspected terrorist in more than two years. 

Nashiri denies the charges saying that he was “tortured into confession and [...] made up stories during the torture in order to get it to stop”.

Abu Zubaydah, captured by the CIA in Pakistan in 2002, says he was detained and tortured in a secret ‘black site’ in Poland.

A Red Cross report published in 2009 states that Abu Zubaydah and Rahim al-Nashiri were moved from a black site in Thailand to Poland on 5 December 2002, as the CIA was making efforts to close the Thai prison.

Last year Poland’s Border Guards released documents to the Helsinki Foundation adding fire to the allegations that Poland housed a secret CIA prison – see the documents here and here. (pg)