Polish officials investigating a now-shuttered secret CIA prison in this country have given a Saudi terror suspect victim status, a legal advance in the detainee's effort to show he was mistreated by interrogators, officials said Wednesday.
Legal experts said Poland's move to grant the status of victim to Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri recognizes the validity of his claims even as US courts have refused to allow cases involving rendition to move forward for national security reasons.
Al-Nashiri, a Saudi national accused in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole warship in a Yemeni harbor, was apprehended by the US, taken to secret CIA prisons in Poland and Thailand and subjected to harsh treatment, according to former US intelligence officials.
