The judge in Milan accepted that Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized from a street in Milan in 2003 by the CIA with the assistance of Italian military intelligence officers. He was transferred to US bases in Italy and Germany and then moved to Egypt, where he claims to have been tortured. He was released after four years in prison without being charged. Twenty-two of the Americans - all of them tried in absentia - were immediately sentenced to five years in prison at the end of the three-year trial.
The judge in Milan accepted that Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized from a street in Milan in 2003 by the CIA with the assistance of Italian military intelligence officers.
He was transferred to US bases in Italy and Germany and then moved to Egypt, where he claims to have been tortured. He was released after four years in prison without being charged.
Twenty-two of the Americans - all of them tried in absentia - were immediately sentenced to five years in prison at the end of the three-year trial.
(The Guardian) - The judge ruled that neither the former head of Italy's military intelligence service (SISMI) Nicolo Pollari nor his deputy could be convicted because the evidence against them was subject to official secrecy restrictions. But two other Italian intelligence officials were each given three-year prison terms.
To build their case, the prosecutors ordered police to tap operatives' telephones and seize documents from intelligence service archives. Earlier this year, Italy's constitutional court dealt the prosecution a heavy blow when it ruled that much of the evidence it had gathered was protected by under Italy's official secrecy laws and could not therefore be used in court. Magi ruled that the trial should continue regardless.
In a reference to the two senior Italian intelligence officials, the lead prosecutor, Armando Spataro, told the court today that the defendants included those who "by kidnapping Abu Omar compromised, rather than safeguarded, national security".
The judge awarded him €1m (£900,000) and his wife €500,000 in damages.
(HRW) - The verdicts today also stand in stark contrast to a disappointing decision issued on November 2 by a US federal appellate court in New York, which dismissed the suit brought by Canadian rendition victim Maher Arar. Arar was detained while in transit at John F. Kennedy airport in September 2002, then rendered by the CIA to Jordan and Syria, where he was brutally tortured for nearly a year.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
