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 Saudi-born Abu Zubaydah is asking the Strasbourg-based court to
rule that NATO member Lithuania was part of a network of U.S. allies
which agreed to host CIA "black sites" around the world where al
Qaeda suspects were held and tortured.
His case was sent to the court in 2011, but last December's release
of the Senate report has given new momentum to legal moves aimed at
holding European governments to account over their role in the CIA's
program.
New evidence in the public domain, including the Senate report,
"renders Lithuania's responsibility for the violation of the
applicant's rights beyond reasonable doubt," Zubaydah's lawyers said
in a submission filed to the court on Thursday.
"Simply on the basis of information in the Senate report itself,
there are numerous clear indications of agreements reached between
Lithuanian officials and the CIA, and of money changing hands," said
the submission, which was seen by Reuters.
 The Senate report, a Lithuanian parliamentary inquiry and documents
previously submitted to the court point to the CIA having used a
converted horse-riding school near the Lithuanian capital Vilnius to
house al-Qaeda suspects between 2005 and 2006.
In the published version of the Senate report, the locations of the
CIA black sites were redacted. But the report describes a facility
called "Detention Site Violet," which matches public information
about the Lithuanian site.
 The report said the CIA obtained approval of the leadership of an
unidentified country to establish a detention site, and when the
agency realized it might be too small, created the "Violet" facility
instead.
It said the CIA offered at least $1 million to "show appreciation"
for its partners' support for the facility. The exact amount was
redacted.
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It said the facility was closed down in 2006 after the host country
refused to allow detainees with medical problems to be treated in a
local hospital.
The report also makes hundreds of references to Zubaydah, with
descriptions of how he was subjected to harsh interrogation
techniques including waterboarding, or simulated drowning, while in
CIA detention.
Lawyers for Zubaydah, who is now in the U.S. military prison in
Guantanamo Bay, allege Lithuania broke European laws by knowingly
letting the CIA hold him on its soil without due process and subject
him to torture.
Lithuania ordered a parliamentary inquiry into the allegations, but
it found there was not sufficient evidence to show the ex-riding
school was used to house detainees.
Lithuanian officials say they want to establish what actually
happened at the site. Earlier this year, Lithuanian prosecutors
re-opened a criminal investigation into allegations of CIA
detentions, four years after they dropped it.
(Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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