Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian Photo: fmprc.gov.cn

As part of the "black jails" network which the US established to secretly detain and torture so-called suspected terrorists, Lithuania has committed crimes with the US that violate human rights and dare not admit to and apologize for, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. 

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks during a regular press conference when asked about papers written by German scholars which reveal Lithuania's human rights violations.

Zhao said that it is known to all that the CIA has built "black jails" in some countries for secret detention and torture of suspected terrorists in the name of the "War on Terror." 

"The notorious Guantanamo Bay detention camp, which symbolizes these black jails, has become the US' symbolic misdeed of arbitrary detention and human rights violations," Zhao said.

German media reported 10 years ago that the US had transferred some suspected Muslim terrorists to the secret jail in Lithuania. 

Despite the Lithuanian government's denial, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2018 that Lithuania had allowed the CIA to build secret jails on its territory and commit human right violations.

Zhao said that what German media and scholars have revealed shows Lithuania's part in the black jails network the US wove. 

"Delighted to be a pawn of the US, Lithuania dared not admit its human rights violations, not to mention an apology, which is not what a responsible country should do," Zhao emphasized.

Lithuania also plays an active part in the US' Taiwan card. After its continuous collusion with the secessionist authority on the island and blatant violation of the one-China principle, China decided to downgrade diplomatic relations with Lithuania to the level of chargé d'affaires on Sunday.

Global Times