31 Indicted for Italian Kidnapping: Nasr

An Italian judge indicted 26 Americans and five Italians Friday, February 16, in the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect in a Milan street.^[1] The judge set a trial date for June 8, in what would be the first criminal trial stemming from the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program.^[2]

Prosecutors allege that five Italian intelligence officials worked with the Americans to seize Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr on Feb. 17, 2003.^[3] Nasr was then allegedly transferred by vehicle to the Aviano Air Force base near Venice, then by air to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and on to Egypt, where his lawyer says he was tortured.^[4]

All but one of the Americans have been identified as CIA agents, and even if a request is made for their extradition, it is unlikely that the CIA agents would be turned over to Italy for prosecution.^[5] However, in Italy defendants can be tried in absentia, thus all of the U.S. agents have court-appointed lawyers, who have acknowledged having no contact with their clients.^[6] Prosecutors say the alleged kidnapping operation was an infringment of Italian sovereignty that compromised Italy’s own anti-terrorism efforts.^[7] Alessia Sorgato and Guido Meroni, a lawyer representing six Americans, have argued that the evidence connecting their clients to Nasr’s disappearance was circumstantial, based on phone records and their presence in locations in Italy during the period before the abduction.^[8]

Although he was under investigation for terrorism-related activities at the time of his abduction, no charges have ever been brought against Nasr. Nasr fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia and was suspected of recruiting fighters for radical Islamic causes.^[9]

We have previously discussed this case here and here.

---

^[1] Colleen Barry, 31 to Stand Trial in CIA Kidnapping Case, AP (via Houston Chronicle), February 16, 2007.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Id.