The prosecutor’s office in Kraków is set to drop charges against the former head of Polish intelligence, Zbigniew Siemiątkowski, in the case of alleged CIA prisons in Poland, daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported last week.

Mr Siemiątkowski was accused of aiding a war crime and overstepping his authority in the matter of alleged CIA prisons operating in Poland between 2003 and 2005, where the US intelligence agency is alleged to have interrogated and tortured detainees accused of terrorism.

Despite the investigation’s “top secret” status, some information has managed to come to light. Mr Siemiątkowski himself confirmed that charges had been brought against him after Polish media discovered the fact in 2012, some four years after the investigation had begun.

This time, Gazeta Wyborcza cited unnamed sources claiming that the charges against Mr Siemiątkowski were to be dropped and that the decision was motivated by backlash major political figures would face had the investigation continued.
“An indictment against the former head of intelligence would lead to charging former Prime Minister Leszek Miller and possibly even former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski,” Gazeta Wyborcza wrote. “Without their knowledge, such a prison couldn’t possibly have functioned.”

Beata Socha