An Italian judge convicted 23 US and two Italian secret agents or military officers for the CIA’s kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in 2003, as Washington expressed dismay over the ruling.
The CIA’s Milan station chief at the time, Robert Seldon Lady, was sentenced on Wednesday to eight years in prison and the other Americans to five years, all in their absence at the landmark trial.
The two Italians were given three-year prison terms after the first trial involving the transfer of a “war on terror” suspect by CIA operatives thought to have sent scores of people to countries that are known to practice torture.
The CIA chief for Italy at the time, Jeffrey Castelli, and the then-head of Italian military intelligence SISMI, Nicolo Pollari, were protected by state secrecy rules, while two other American defendants benefited from diplomatic immunity, Judge Oscar Magi said.
US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said that Washington was “disappointed by the verdicts against the Americans and Italians” in the trial.
“Our view is the Italian court has no jurisdiction over Lieutenant Colonel [Joseph] Romano and should have immediately dismissed the charges,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.
“Now that they have not, we will, of course, explore what options we have going forward,” he said.
Prosecutor Armando Spataro hailed the ruling, saying the trial, which opened in June 2007, had demonstrated “the truth of the investigation.”
Osama Mustafa Hassan, an imam better known as Abu Omar, was snatched from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003 in an operation coordinated by the CIA and SISMI.
The radical Islamist opposition figure, who enjoyed political asylum in Italy, was allegedly taken to the Aviano Air Base, a US military installation in northeastern Italy, then flown to the US base in Ramstein, Germany, and on to Cairo, where he says he was tortured.
The “extraordinary rendition” program was set up by the administration of then-US president George W. Bush in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.
RSS