ITALY’S HIGHEST CRIMINAL court has upheld the convictions of 23 Americans in the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street as part of the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme, paving the way to possible extradition requests by Italian authorities.
This ruling by the Court of Cassation marks the final appeal in the first trial anywhere in the world involving the CIA’s practice of abducting terror suspects and transferring them to third countries where torture is permitted.
Those convicted include the former Milan CIA station chief, Robert Seldon Lady, whose original seven-year sentence was raised to nine years on appeal. The other 22 Americans, all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents, also saw their sentences stiffened on appeal, from five to seven years.
The Americans as well as two Italians were convicted in 2009 of involvement in the kidnapping of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, in February 2003. The cleric was transferred to US military bases in Italy and Germany before being moved to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. He has since been released.
Extradition
The Americans were convicted in absentia following a three-and-a-half year trial and have never been in Italian custody. If they travel to Europe they risk arrest and one of their lawyers has suggested that the final verdict would open the way for the Italian government to seek their extradition.
“It went badly. It went very badly,” lawyer Alessia Sorgato said after the court announced its decision after a day of deliberations. “Now they will ask for extradition.”
Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro, one of Italy’s top anti-terrorism magistrates who shaped the prosecution, hailed the top court’s decision, saying it was tantamount to a finding that extraordinary rendition “is incompatible with democracy.”
The court will make public its reasoning behind the decision in a written document in about 90 days.
“We will see if the minister of justice intends to request extradition, since the final verdict poses this issue,” Spataro said.
Government action
Previous Italian governments, both from the center-left and from the center-right had declined to act on prosecutors’ requests during trial to extradite the American suspects, most of whom had court-appointed lawyers the defendants never met. While some of the defendants in the case were known figures attached to the US Embassy or Consulate in Milan, many of those named in the trial are believed to have been aliases, which would hinder extradition efforts.
Premier Mario Monti, an economist from outside of politics, is leading a government of technocrats concentrated on saving Italy from financial disaster. Since any extradition request can take months to run its course, and elections are due in spring, it could conceivably be a new government to have the final say on whether to press for extradition of the Americans.
The court also ordered new appeals trials for five Italian intelligence agents, including the former head of military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari. They had been acquitted by lower courts because of state secrets. But the Cassation Court’s ruling indicates that the lower appellate court, which will hear their case again, needs to give more scrutiny to the state secrecy line of defence.
- With reporting from Associated Press
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