WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish prosecutors have extended until October a five-year-old criminal investigation into allegations that the CIA ran secret jails on Polish soil, a case human rights activistssay the authorities are deliberately dragging out.
The United States has acknowledged it used a network of facilities in foreign countries to detain al Qaeda suspects in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, though it has never disclosed their location.
Poland is the only one of the alleged hosts of the CIA "black sites" which has a criminal investigation open. If the case goes to trial, it could implicate senior political figures and complicate Warsaw's relations with Washington.
"The general prosecutor decided yesterday to extend the investigation by four months," said Mateusz Martyniuk, spokesman for the prosecutor's office.
Amnesty International campaigner Julia Hall said the extension was part of a pattern of unexplained delays in bringing the case to trial.
"(We are) quite concerned about the numerous delays in the investigation, and, now that the investigation is over five years old, the possible reasons for those delays," she said.
The investigation has already been extended several times. Rights activists say prosecutors have ample evidence to convict former Polish officials of allowing the CIA to operate a jail, but are under political pressure to avoid a trial.
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