A barn used by the "CIA" as a secret prison Lithuania is preparing to sell the black site

Lithuania announced that it was selling a horse barn outside the capital, Vilnius, which was used by the CIA between 2005 and 2006 as a secret prison known as the "Black Site", to detain and torture Muslims suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda.

Lithuania's state property fund, which deals with assets no longer needed by the state, said Monday that it was "preparing to sell the infamous Black Site, also known as Project No. 2 or the Violet Detention Site", at an as yet unknown price.

The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used the site, which contains soundproof rooms and without windows, to detain and torture Muslims suspected of belonging to terrorist groups, where they were subjected to various types of torture, ranging from exposure to intense light to torture with high intensity noise.

Project No. 2, located outside the borders of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, until its closure in 2006 was one of the torture centers located outside the United States, which are called "black sites" idiomatically because of their severe course and the lawless practices that were taking place within their walls.

Violet detention site

Instead of sheds and overhead sheds for hay, the stables outside the Lithuanian capital Vilnius consist of long corridors that lead to soundproofed, windowless rooms where “one could do whatever one wanted,” according to Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvidas Anosuskas, who led a parliamentary inquiry into the facility in 2010, spoke to Reuters about the details of the black site.

The site was part of the US rendition program in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, under which the CIA held Muslim suspects in prisons outside US jurisdiction, where they could interrogate foreign suspects without charge.

During detention in the 10-room facility, prisoners were subjected to brutal interrogation techniques that human rights groups and US judges have condemned as torture, including sleep deprivation, solitary confinement and waterboarding.

It is noteworthy that the CIA used the site as a detention center for about a year, from 2005 until its closure in 2006.

Lithuania pays 100,000 euros in fine

Earlier this month, media revealed that the Lithuanian government had paid Abu Zubaydah, known as the "forever prisoner," €100,000 in compensation for the treatment he suffered at the black site, following the European Court of Human Rights ruling.

The court acknowledged that the Lithuanian government had violated the Human Rights Convention prohibiting torture after it allowed the CIA to torture Abu Zubaydah inside a black site on its territory.

While the Guardian reported that Lithuania had now paid him €113,00100,000 in compensation, it indicated that Abu Zubaydah could not actually access the money because he was still being held at Guantanamo Bay, and because the US Treasury had frozen his assets as well.

It should be noted that Abu Zubaydah was arrested in Pakistan six months after the events of 11 September, accused of being a prominent member of Al-Qaeda, and has been held without charge since then. He was held in several CIA black sites around the world before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2006. Despite the brutal and systematic torture he was subjected to throughout his years in prison, investigators have never found any evidence that he was a member of Al Qaeda or had prior knowledge of the attacks. 11 September.

Secret Delivery Program

A 2013 report published by the Open Society Justice Initiative revealed that 54 countries around the world helped the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with its program of secret prisons (black sites) and violent interrogations of terrorism suspects after the September 11 attacks.

According to the report, the governments of 54 foreign countries participated in this program in various ways, including opening secret prisons on their territory, contributing to the arrest, transfer, interrogation and torture of suspects, and providing intelligence information, in addition to opening their airspace for secret flights.

Concerns about the lack of access to medical care for detainees, along with legal challenges, pressure from the media, exposure to the media and other things brought the controversial program to a halt, with most of the sites vacated by September 2006, when then US President George W. Bush, publicly existed for the first time and declared the black sites empty.

While Italy was the only country that sentenced officials for their involvement in these operations, and Canada was considered the only country that offered apologies to one of the victims of this program, countries such as Canada, Australia, Britain and recently Lithuania paid financial compensation to the victims who were tortured on its soil.