In the hammer once secret CIA installation in Lithuania

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A two-storey property in a green suburb of Vilnius which, according to human rights groups, was a “black site”, a secret CIA facility used to detain and torture suspects during the “war on terror” will be available to sale.

The Lithuanian Real Estate Development Fund announced yesterday, Friday, that it intends to auction the 968-square-meter building.

The facility became a training center for Lithuanian intelligence agents from 2007 onwards.

The building is “included in the list” of buildings “that the fund will sell,” a spokeswoman said.

Lithuanian authorities have denied that the building was a secret detention center for the US intelligence service. However, it corresponds to the description of an installation codenamed “Violet” which was contained in an investigation by the US Senate.

A Lithuanian parliamentary inquiry also referred to the existence of such an installation.

The building, in the suburb of Antaviliei, housed until March 2004 an equestrian club and a café belonging to a family living there.

The family sold the property to Elite, a company that has now closed. According to American media, it was a CIA showcase company.

In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights had stressed that there was indeed a secret establishment of the US spy service in Lithuania between 2005 and 2006.

Also yesterday, Lithuanian authorities paid compensation to a Palestinian currently being held at the US Navy base at Guantanamo, who according to the ECtHR had been detained and tortured at the CIA secret facility in the Baltic country. The ECtHR had ordered Vilnius to pay 130,000 euros to the man for violating his rights.

According to the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice, the amount was paid into a bank account designated by the applicant and his lawyer, according to the BNS news agency.

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