| Italy charges 26 US citizens |
|
|
|
| World Affairs Talk | |
| Saturday, 16 June 2007 | |
|
The court in Milan began the trial charged with kidnapping Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, in the city in 2003 and then flying him to Egypt where he was tortured during interrogation. Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was on Washington's list of terrorist suspects so he was abducted from a Milan street in broad daylight on February 17, 2003, and taken via the US military base in Aviano, northeastern Italy, to Cairo, where he claims he was tortured. Twenty-five CIA agents, a US air force colonel and seven Italians have been indicted for the trial. The Abu Omar case is among several issues that have clouded relations between Rome and Washington in recent years. The kidnapping took place while staunch US ally Silvio Berlusconi was prime minister, and he insists that he was never informed of the operation. The centre-left government of his successor Romano Prodi has said it would follow Berlusconi's policy of refusing to seek the extradition of the 26 Americans requested by the Milan prosecutors. Washington has long said it will not transfer the defendants, who are already the subject of a Europe-wide arrest warrant. When the presiding started, as expected, none of the US nationals turned up in court and only one Italian agent was present. The trial got under way with empty cages lining two walls of the courtroom. Judge Oscar Magi adjourned the trial to June 18, when he said he would rule on a defence motion for a suspension pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court on whether Milan prosecutors had violated state secrecy laws by using wiretaps on Italian agents in their probe. Abu Omar's seizure was thought to be among scores of secret kidnappings around the world since the attacks of September 11, 2001, in the US "extraordinary rendition" programme, under which terror suspects were transferred to countries known to practise torture. The 26 US defendants are being tried in absentia, while all but one of the seven Italian defendants did not appear at the trial's opening on 8 June. Among the Italians is the former head of Italy's military intelligence (SISMI), General Nicolo Pollari, who was forced to resign in November 2006 over the affair. Among the Americans are the former CIA Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady, the Rome CIA chief Jeffrey Castelli and US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Romano, who was stationed at Aviano at the time. Meanwhile, Council of Europe released a report in Strasbourg saying the CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania from 2003 to 2005 to interrogate terror suspects under a programme authorized by the countries' presidents. The European Commission immediately called on EU countries accused of taking part in the covert CIA programme to conduct impartial investigations as quickly as possible to establish responsibility. Share & Bookmark             |
|
| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 19 June 2007 ) |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
