Expert testimony provided by Westminster researchers proved central to the July 2026 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that found that Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri – a Saudi national who has been detained at a US Department of Defense detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for nearly 20 years – was held for more than five months in 2005-2006 at a secret facility in Lithuania run by the CIA.
Unredacted is led by Westminster colleagues Professor Sam Raphael, Professor in International Relations and Human Rights, and Dr Jac St John, Lecturer in Politics and International Relations.
The team, which includes two Quintin Hogg Trust (QHT)-funded doctoral researchers, Namir Shabibi and Lydia Day, investigates and documents secretive UK state and corporate practices in the context of national security.
Their work helps to uncover the details of secretive practices and identify abuses of power, enabling others to hold governments and corporations to account. For example, their research contributed to a documentary with BBC Panorama and has forced the Government to establish a public inquiry into war crimes in Afghanistan.
Unredacted’s Torture Project builds on earlier work with The Rendition Project, an ESRC-funded programme which ran from 2010-2019 and was at the forefront of efforts to uncover the use of rendition, secret detention and torture by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its allies in the “war on terror”. The Rendition Project’s final report in 2019, CIA Torture Unredacted, co-published with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, remains the most detailed public account to date of the CIA torture programme.
Expert testimony provided by the team at Unredacted proved central to the case brought against Lithuania. Their analysis is based upon the collection of a range of unique data sources, gathered over a period of more than 15 years in the face of extreme levels of state secrecy. These include flight data which tracked the movement of CIA aircrafts, prisoner testimony, hundreds of declassified documents, and an analysis of thousands of CIA cables from within the torture programme.
Triangulation between this data has enabled them to determine, beyond reasonable doubt, that al-Nashiri was taken from Romania to Lithuania in October 2005, on board two CIA aircrafts which met in Albania. He was then held in the country until March 2006, at which point he was taken to Afghanistan on board two CIA aircraft which met in Egypt.
The findings were central to the Court’s final judgment. Despite the fact that the Government of Lithuania contested the basis of the evidence, the Court ultimately found the work to have “proven beyond reasonable doubt” al-Nashiri’s secret detention and torture in Lithuania. It also reaffirmed its judgment in previous cases that this activity was known about by the Lithuanian authorities, which also provided concrete assistance to the CIA.
The Court has awarded al-Nashiri 30,000 euros in damages. Al-Nashiri, meanwhile, continues to be held in arbitrary detention at Guantanamo Bay, some 24 years after his initial capture by the CIA.
Professor Raphael said: "This landmark judgment - in which Lithuania has been found to have been an active collaborator in the CIA torture programme in the 'war on terror' - marks an important moment for those still trying to seek justice for those detained outside the law and brutally mistreated. In the face of multiple forms of state denial and coverup, it also shows the power and impact of this form of counter-forensic research, conducted at the University of Westminster under the banner of Unredacted."
Unredacted’s work directly contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.
Read the full judgement.
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