US Must Immediately Reopen Investigations Into Detainee Abuse: HRW

WASHINGTON, December 11 (Sputnik) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on the United States and other countries to reopen investigations into detainee maltreatment as soon as possible, Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington Director at HRW told Sputnik Thursday.

"The US should immediately reopen investigations into detainee abuse, and other countries should do the same," Prasow stressed.

She underlined that HRW has been documenting torture and other ill-treatment while monitoring the US government’s counterterrorism efforts.

"We have reported on the very torture and ill-treatment documented in the Senate intelligence committee report, and continue to call for thorough criminal investigations up to the highest levels," Prasow concluded.

The Guardian reported on Wednesday that Poland, Romania, and Lithuania hosted "black sites" for the CIA, which were effectively torture chambers. The newspaper added that there is evidence of other European countries cooperated with the CIA in organizing covert rendition flights, including Britain, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Albania.

“Sweden is a party to the Convention Against Torture and accordingly has an obligation to investigate torture. And it certainly can put diplomatic pressure on the US to investigate the extensive criminal activity documented in the Senate intelligence committee’s report,” Prasow stated.

On Tuesday, the US Senate Intelligence Committee released the so-called CIA "torture report," a summary of a detailed investigation into the CIA Detention and Interrogation program promoted after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, DC, that in some cases included torture practices. Following the release of the report, US President Barack Obama stated that the US no longer uses torture.