Unredacted’s expert testimony proved central to case lodged by Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national held in secret detention and brutally tortured for four years in CIA black sites around the world. Al-Nashiri remains detained at Guantanamo Bay, nearly 24 years after his capture.
A July 2026 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found that Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri – a Saudi national who has been detained at US Department of Defense detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for nearly 20 years – was held for more than five months in 2005-2006 at a secret facility in Lithuania run by the CIA. During this time, he was held in incommunicado detention and solitary confinement, and denied any contact with his family. The Court also found that the Lithuanian authorities had assisted in al-Nashiri’s transfer from its territory in March 2006, despite the real risk that he could face ‘a flagrant denial of justice and the death penalty in the United States.’1 As such, the Court held, unanimously, that there had been violations of Article 6(1) (right to a fair trial), Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) and Articles 2 (right to life) and 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) when read together with Article 1 of Protocol 6 (abolition of the death penalty). Al-Nashiri’s complaint in regards to his torture, ill-treatment and unacknowledged detention were ruled as inadmissible, given that the United National Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had already decided on this issue, finding in 2022 that Lithuania had been complicit in his torture and secret detention in the country.2
Al-Nashiri’s detention at a CIA black site in Lithuania was just one stage of a four-year journey into a global network of secret detention sites, rendition and torture. Al-Nashiri was held in secret facilities in no fewer than nine different locations around the world between October 2002 and September 2006, including black sites in Afghanistan, Thailand, Poland, Morocco, Guantanamo Bay, Romania and Lithuania. He was, during this time, brutally tortured by CIA interrogators. In Afghanistan during 2002, for example, al-Nashiri says his wrists were tied to a bar in the ceiling, and he was kept naked in a painful position with his feet just touching the floor. After his rendition to Thailand in November 2002, he was kept naked and shackled, and was threatened with sodomy and the arrest and rape of his family. He was also subjected to the use of confinement boxes and the waterboard over a number of days. According to al-Nashiri himself, ‘There was a box half meter by half meter. It was two meters in height. They used to put me inside the box. I was standing in that box for about a week and I couldn’t do anything. My feet were swollen. My nails were about to fall off.’3 Indeed, the torture of al-Nashiri by the CIA in Thailand was so extreme that officials were clear that videotapes of the interrogations needed to be destroyed, in contravention of guidance from Headquarters, with one email making clear that ‘the heat from destroying is nothing compared to what it would be if the tapes ever got into public domain… out of context, they would make us look terrible; it would be devastating to us.’4
By December 2002, al-Nashiri had been transferred to a black site in Poland, where he was placed in a standing stress position for days, followed by a mock execution with a hand gun and the use of a cordless power drill. At times, he was placed in stress positions so extreme that a medical officer had to intervene due to concerns that his shoulders would dislocate.5 The torture was so severe that concerns were expressed at Headquarters, with one cable making clear that ‘we have serious reservations with the continued used of enhanced techniques with Nashiri (subject) and its long term impact on him. Subject has been held for three months in very difficult conditions, both physically and mentally…. Continued enhanced methods may push subject over the edge psychologically.’6 On the same day, the CIA’s chief of interrogations announced his early retirement, given his severe concerns over the torture programme:
This morning I informed the front office of CTC that I will no longer be associated in any way with the interrogation program due to serious reservation I have about the current state of affairs. Instead, I will be retiring shortly. This is a train wreak (sic) waiting to happen and I intend to get the hell off the train before it happens.7
Further renditions and periods of secret detention followed, including in a proxy facility in Morocco, a CIA black site alongside the Department of Defense facility at Guantanamo Bay, and a black site in Romania. By this point (2004-2005), al-Nashiri was observed by CIA staff as having depression, anxiety and insomnia. He was, nonetheless, subjected to rectal feeding – a form of sexual abuse – in response to a short-lived hunger strike, with Ensure infused into al-Nashiri ‘in a forward-facing position (Trendlenberg) with head lower than torso.’8
Expert testimony provided by the team at Unredacted proved central to the case brought against Lithuania. Our analysis is based upon the collection of a range of unique data sources, gathered over a period of more than 15 years in the face of extreme levels of state secrecy. These include flight data which tracked the movement of CIA aircraft, prisoner testimony, hundreds of declassified documents, and an analysis of thousands of CIA cables from within the torture programme. Triangulation between these data has enabled us to determine, beyond reasonable doubt, that al-Nashiri was rendered from Romania to Lithuania in October 2005, on board two CIA aircraft (tail numbers N308AB and N787WH) which met in Albania. He was then held in the country until March 2006, at which point he was rendered to Afghanistan on board two CIA aircraft (N733MA and N740EH) which met in Egypt.
Our findings were central to the Court’s final judgment. Despite the fact that the Government of Lithuania contested the basis of our evidence,9 the Court ultimately found our work to have ‘proven beyond reasonable doubt’ al-Nashiri’s secret detention and torture in Lithuania.10 It also reaffirmed its judgment in previous cases that this activity was known about by the Lithuanian authorities, which also provided concrete assistance to the CIA.
The Court has awarded al-Nashiri 30,000 euros in damages. Al-Nashiri, meanwhile, continues to be held in arbitrary detention at Guantanamo Bay, some 24 years after his initial capture by the CIA.
- European Court of Human Rights, Press Release: Human Rights Violations Against Lithuania for its Involvement in CIA Secret Detention Programme, Al-Nashiri v. Lithuania, 7 Jul 2026. ↩︎
- UN Human Rights Council (Working Group on Arbitrary Detention), Opinion no. 72/2022 Concerning Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Al-Nashiri (Afghanistan, Lithuania, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and United States of America), 30 May 2023. ↩︎
- US Department of Defense, Detainee Statement: Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, Combatant Status Review Tribunal, transcript, 14 Mar 2007, p. 16. ↩︎
- Central Intelligence Agency, Email: Short Backgrounder, [redacted] to Dusty Foggo [redacted], 10 Nov 2005. ↩︎
- US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee Study of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program: Executive Summary, 9 Dec 2014, pp. 69-70; Central Intelligence Agency (Office of Inspector General), Special Review: Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities (Sep 2001 – Oct 2003) [Ver. 2], case 2003-7123-IG, document with cover sheet, 7 May 2004, pp. 41-44. ↩︎
- Central Intelligence Agency, Memo: Concerns Over Revised Interrogation Plan for Nashiri, [redacted] to [redacted], document with attachment, 22 Jan 2003. ↩︎
- Central Intelligence Agency, Note: Re, [redacted] to [redacted], 22 Jan 2003. ↩︎
- Central Intelligence Agency, cable 1203, 23 May 2004, 17:09. ↩︎
- European Court of Human Rights, Judgment: Al-Nashiri v. Lithuania, 7 Jul 2026, pp. 42-45. ↩︎
- European Court of Human Rights, Judgment: Al-Nashiri v. Lithuania, 7 Jul 2026, p. 54. ↩︎
