Poland declines once again to answer questions on alleged CIA jails

(Reuters) Poland's government has, for a second time in 12 months, declined a request from the European Court of Human Rights to provide information about the alleged existence of secret CIA jails on its soil.

The Strasbourg-based court is trying to find out how closely Poland cooperated with the clandestine part of U.S. operations against Islamist militancy.

Poland is the only country with a domestic criminal investigation running into allegations it hosted a CIA "black site". If it is proven that Polish officials agreed to the jail, that would be a crime under Polish and international law.

Human rights activists accuse the Polish authorities of using the domestic investigation as a smokescreen to disguise their inaction. The Polish case has been running for five years, with no sign any prosecutions are imminent.

The European court had asked Poland to answer questions about Saudi-born Abu Zubaydah, who alleged that, about a decade ago, he was held in a CIA-run facility in a forest in northern Poland and subjected to brutal interrogation.

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