Egypt orders cleric's release
2007-02-12 12:26
Cairo - The Egyptian government has ordered the release of a Muslim cleric imprisoned after he was kidnapped from Italy, allegedly by CIA agents, the interior ministry said on Sunday.
"We have arranged his release," an interior ministry official who wished to remain anonymous told AFP.
Sources close to the defence counsel for Osama Mustafa Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, said he had already left the Tora high security prison, south of Cairo.
The man, a former imam of a mosque in the northern Italian city of Milan, was arrested in Italy in February 2003.
Italian investigators say he was seized by agents of the United States intelligence service, the CIA, with the help of Italian agents. They allege he was then taken to a US airbase in Italy before being flown to Egypt.
His lawyer Muntasser al-Zayat has claimed the imam was tortured in prison and attempted suicide.
Italian judicial authorities have demanded the extradition of 26 CIA agents to Italy to face trial over the case.
- AFP