BUCHAREST, Romania — The CIA paid Romania “millions of dollars” to host secret prisons, a rights lawyer said Wednesday as the European Court of Human Rights heard accusations that Romania allowed the agency to torture terrorism suspects in a secret renditions program under President George W. Bush. The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture was completed in 2014. The alleged presence of CIA secret prisons remains a sensitive subject in Romania, a strong U.S. ally which at the time was seeking support from Washington to join NATO, something it did in 2004. The court said it would rule in a few months on whether Romania knowingly allowed CIA secret prisons where torture occurred, and whether it failed to prevent the torture of Singh’s client. Amrit Singh told the court on the opening day of the case that CIA prisons were in Romania from 2003-2005 with the government’s “acquiescence and connivance,” something authorities have denied.

Source: National Post June 30, 2016 17:37 UTC