European judges have ruled that Lithuania and Romania violated the rights of two al-Qaeda terror suspects by allowing the CIA to torture them.

The US captured Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri after the September 2001 attacks in the US and they are now at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

The CIA operated secret prisons, including in Lithuania and Romania.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said both countries had violated the European prohibition of torture.

Lithuania and Romania were ordered to pay €100,000 (£88,000; $117,000) in damages each to Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Nashiri, respectively. The ECHR was unable to visit the suspects at Guantanamo.

The existence of the so-called CIA "black sites" for interrogation - under the so-called "secret rendition" policy - was kept secret for many years after 9/11.

Abu Zubaydah, a stateless Palestinian born in Saudi Arabia, is thought to have been al-Qaeda's chief recruiter in the 1990s, and later became a key organiser, linking Osama Bin Laden to other al-Qaeda cells.

Saudi-born Abd al-Nashiri led al-Qaeda's operations in the Gulf region, according to US intelligence. He allegedly masterminded the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, which left 17 dead.

Aida AYSA,

“Khalg gazeti”