Italy indicts 26 US nationals

2007-02-16 17:11

Milan - An Italian judge indicted 26 Americans and five Italians on Friday for what will be the first criminal trial over the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme.

The judge set a trial date for June 8. Prosecutors allege that five Italian intelligence officials worked with the Americans - almost all CIA agents - to abduct terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr from a Milan street on February 17 2003.

The CIA has refused to comment on the case.

Among those indicted was the former Italian chief of military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari.

Pollari, the only defendant who appeared during the preliminary hearing, has insisted that Italian intelligence played no role in the alleged abduction, and told the judge he was unable to defend himself properly because documents clarifying his position had been excluded from the proceedings because they contain state secrets.

Nasr was allegedly transported to the Aviano Air Force base near Venice, then by air to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and then to Egypt, where critics say he was tortured.

All but one of the American suspects have been identified as CIA agents, including the former station chiefs in Rome and Milan. The other is a US Air Force officer stationed at the time at Aviano.

Government yet to make decision

The case has put an uncomfortable spotlight on intelligence operations, as prosecutors press the Italian government to seek the extradition of the US agents.

The previous government of Silvio Berlusconi refused, and Premier Romano Prodi's centre-left government has yet to make its decision.

Even if a request is made for the Americans' extradition - a move bound to irritate US-Italian relations - it was unlikely that the CIA agents would be turned over for trial abroad.

All of the US agents have court-appointed lawyers, who have acknowledged having no contact with their clients.

Prosecutors say the alleged kidnapping operation was a breach of Italian sovereignty that compromised Italy's own anti-terrorism efforts.

Nasr was under investigation for terrorism-related activities at the time of his abduction, and Milan prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest more than two years after he disappeared from Milan, while he was in Egyptian custody.

Nasr released from jail

Nasr, who allegedly was tortured during four years' imprisonment in Egypt, was released earlier this week from jail.

His lawyer in Egypt said in an interview on Italian state TV that he wants to return to Italy, where he had been granted the status of political refugee.

Prosecutors elsewhere in Europe are moving ahead with cases aimed at the CIA programme.

This week, the Swiss government approved prosecutors' plans to investigate the flight that allegedly took Nasr over Swiss air space from Italy to Germany.

And a Munich prosecutor recently issued arrest warrants for 13 people in connection with another alleged CIA-orchestrated kidnapping, this one of a German citizen who says he was abducted in December 2003 at the Serbian-Macedonia border and flown to Afghanistan.

- AP