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CIA agents to stand trial for Italy kidnapping
Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:36am ET


MILAN (Reuters) - A Milan judge on Friday ordered 26 Americans, most of them thought to be CIA agents, to stand trial with Italian spies for the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, who says he was flown to Egypt and tortured there.

Among those indicted are the former heads of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Rome and Milan, and the former head of Italy's SISMI military intelligence agency, Nicolo Pollari, defense lawyers said.

The trial, set to begin on June 8, will be the first criminal case over "renditions" -- one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.



Beyond embarrassing Washington, the case also threatens to pit the Italian government against the independent judiciary in a battle to protect state secrets.

Washington acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries but denies using or sanctioning torture, and is not expected to hand over its agents for trial.

Prosecutor Armando Spataro on Friday criticized the "silence of the current government" for failing to explain why it had not yet forwarded his extradition requests for the Americans.

Spataro says a CIA-led team, with SISMI's help, grabbed Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, off a Milan street in February 2003, bundled him into a van and drove him to a military base in northern Italy. Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved. CIA agents to stand trial for Italy kidnapping
Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:36am ET


FACTBOX-Italy's CIA kidnap case

From there, prosecutors allege the CIA flew him via Germany to Egypt where he says he was tortured with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.

He was released from prison on Sunday and says he would like to return to Italy, where an Italian judge has issued a warrant for his arrest over suspicion of terrorist activity.

"I have been reduced to a wreck of a human being," he told ANSA news agency after his release. In another interview this week he said he could hardly walk: "They burst my kidneys."

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The case is being closely watched in Europe. The European Parliament approved a report on Wednesday saying governments in the region helped conceal secret U.S. transfers of terrorism suspects.

A court in Munich issued arrest warrants last month for 13 suspected CIA agents accused of kidnapping a German of Lebanese descent and flying him to a jail in Afghanistan, where he too says he was tortured.

Rome has not acknowledged any role in the kidnapping but Pollari's predecessor said in a deposition that the then CIA chief in Rome, Jeff Castelli, had raised the possibility of renditions in Italy just days after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

An Italian police officer, who has accepted a 21 month jail term instead of risking a heavier sentence by going to trial, has acknowledged helping the CIA grab Nasr. Continued...




CIA agents to stand trial for Italy kidnapping
Fri Feb 16, 2007 9:36am ET


FACTBOX-Italy's CIA kidnap case


But he says the CIA's Milan station chief at the time, Robert Lady, told him the purpose was to recruit the imam as an informer, not abduct him. Both Lady and Castelli were indicted.

Prime Minister Romano Prodi has angered leftist allies by opting to keep documents related to the case classified.

His government this week challenged Milan prosecutors in Italy's constitutional court for breaking state secrecy rules during their investigation of possible involvement by SISMI.

Pollari says classified documents show he did nothing wrong.



"We are very disappointed as we're convinced there is a lack of evidence and that documents covered by state secrecy would show Pollari's innocence," said his lawyer, Titta Madia.

(Additional reporting by Jane Barrett in Madrid and Eleonor Biles in Rome)

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved