BUCHAREST, Romania — The CIA paid Romania ‘‘millions of dollars’’ to host secret prisons, a rights lawyer said Wednesday as the European Court of Human Rights heard accusations that Romania allowed the agency to torture terrorism suspects in a secret renditions program under President George W. Bush.

Amrit Singh told the court on the opening day of the case that CIA prisons were in Romania from 2003-2005 with the government’s ‘‘acquiescence and connivance,’’ something authorities have denied.

Romanian government representative Catrinel Brumar said an investigation was ongoing.

The court said it would rule in a few months on whether Romania knowingly allowed CIA secret prisons where torture occurred, and whether it failed to prevent the torture of Singh’s client.

The alleged presence of CIA secret prisons remains a sensitive subject in Romania, a strong US ally that at the time was seeking support from Washington to join NATO.

Singh said her client, Saudi Arabian national Abd al-Rahim Al Nashiri, was shackled, sleep-deprived, subjected to loud noise and bright lights, slapped, and given forced rectal feeding at a Bucharest CIA prison in 2004. He is currently in US custody at Guantanamo Bay.

The Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture was completed in 2014. It did not directly mention Romania.

Associated Press