Lithuania’s Universal Periodic Review: Submission on Lithuania’s Complicity in the Torture and Ill-treatment of CIA Detainees Secretly Held in its Territory

On 17 July 2026, REDRESS made a submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Republic of Lithuania. 

The contribution focuses on the lack of effective investigation into Lithuania’s complicity in, and facilitation of, the United States’ (US) Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation (RDI) Program. 

Detailed analysis of publicly available evidence on the CIA RDI Program has revealed that REDRESS client Mustafa al-Hawsawi and other detainees were secretly held in a CIA secret detention facility in Lithuania between February 2005 and March 2006.  This has been confirmed in several European Court of Human Rights’ judgments, including in the case of Mustafa al-Hawsawi v Lithuania. 

The CIA Program included the application of so-called “Enhanced interrogation Techniques” which encompassed waterboarding, extreme sleep deprivation, stress positions, confinement in tiny, enclosed spaces and various forms of physical violence. Mustafa was one of the so-called “High Value Detainees” subjected to torture and ill-treatment during his secret, arbitrary detention in Lithuania. 

Lithuania’s complicity in the CIA Program has been extensively reported since at least 2009. 

Despite the comprehensive evidence available, and the findings of the European Court of Human Rights, the Lithuanian authorities have still not completed an effective investigation into Lithuania’s complicity in the CIA’s RDI program, over 21 years since the opening of the CIA detention facility in its territory in 2005.  

Although the status of its investigation into these matters has often been unclear, Lithuania confirmed to REDRESS in March 2026 that “the pre-trial investigation is ongoing”. 

Nonetheless, it is clear that the limited investigative efforts carried out to date are insufficient, and the Lithuanian authorities have manifestly failed to clarify the extent of the State’s involvement in the program or to hold any individuals involved accountable. 

REDRESS has made similar contributions to Lithuania’s previous UPRs in 2016 and 2022, but is compelled once again to call attention to these issues, asking participants in the UPR to urge the State of Lithuania to 

• Ensure that the investigation is undertaken within reasonable time, and in compliance with international human rights standards;  

• Take concrete steps to establish the truth, pursuing all relevant lines of inquiry to enable the identification and accountability of the persons responsible for crimes that may have occurred in connection with and within secret CIA detention centres established in Lithuania;
• Ensure victims are granted the right to full participation in the investigation; 
• Publicise the results and steps taken during the investigation to enable a significant degree of public scrutiny; and 
• Bring to justice in fair trials any individuals identified as responsible for those violations of human rights.

The CIA‘s RDI Program relied on States like Lithuania, and could not have functioned without their cooperation.  

Lithuania’s international legal obligations require it to investigate the prolonged incommunicado detention, enforced disappearance and other forms of torture and prohibited ill-treatment to which CIA detainees like Mustafa were subject.  

More information about Mustafa’s case can be found here.  

Photo: UN Photo/ Evan Schneider