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Italy orders trial of 25 CIA
agents for rendition flight
BY OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
January 19, 2006
In a rare case, Italy has decided
to put on trial 25 agents of the
United State’s Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) and five of Italy’s own
spies after an Egyptian cleric alleged
that he abducted and transported to
Egypt for torture by a US “rendition
flight.”
Two former Italian intelligence chiefs
were also among those indicted by
Milan judge Caterina Interlandi.
It will be the biggest case against US
intelligence agents staged in an
allied country and threatens
embarrassing new revelations over the
CIA programme in which terror suspects
were seized in one country and taken
to another.
The tactic has been among the most
controversial used in the US “war on
terror” declared after the September
11 attacks on New York and Washington.
Renditions are a controversial aspect
of US President George W Bush’s war on
terror. Washington acknowledges secret
transfers of terrorism suspects to
third countries, but denies using or
sanctioning torture.
Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr was
allegedly snatched from a street in
Milan, Italy, on February 17, 2003,
and transferred to Egypt where he was
tortured.
It is claimed he was abducted by five
Italian intelligence officials who
worked with 26 Americans – all but one
of whom have been identified by
prosecutors as CIA agents – and sent
to Egypt via Germany for torture.
Secrecy has surrounded the case – the
first-ever trial on rendition flights
– with even defence lawyers saying
they have never seen or heard from
their US defendants.
Defence lawyer Guido Meroni said: “At
this stage there has not been a clear
and profound declaration on the real
and physical identities of anyone
involved.’
This week a report by the European
Parliament concluded that rendition
flights do exist and that individual
European governments accepted and
concealed the practice.
It singled out the British Government
as being one of the worst to collude
with the US and claimed the
authorities sent three UK residents on
rendition fights for questioning in
connection with alleged terrorism.
On Wednesday, the Swiss government
gave the go-ahead for a criminal
investigation into the use of Swiss
airspace to fly Hassan, also known as
Abu Omar, to a US base in Germany
before he was flown on to Egypt.
Judge Interlandi ordered the trial to
start on June 8, 2007, though none of
the accused US agents is expected to
return to Italy.
A European arrest warrant has already
been issued for the 26 US citizens,
but Italy’s Justice Minister Clemente
Mastella has yet to act on a request
by Milan prosecutors to seek their
extradition.
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