In a landmark ruling, an Italian judge has convicted twenty-three Americans, mostly CIA operatives, for kidnapping a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003. The former CIA base chief in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, was sentenced to eight years in prison. The other Americans were given five-year sentences. The Americans were all tried in absentia after the United States refused to turn them over. The convictions turn the CIA agents into international fugitives who risk arrest abroad.
The case marks the first time any American has been convicted for taking part in a so-called “extraordinary rendition,” a practice the CIA has used, dating back to the Clinton administration, to kidnap wanted individuals anywhere in the world.
The Italian case centers around the Egyptian cleric Abu Omar. On February 17th, 2003, he was seized in broad daylight while walking in Milan. He was then taken to US bases in Italy and Germany before being sent to Egypt. He says he was tortured there during a four-year imprisonment. Abu Omar was never charged with a crime and ultimately set free. The CIA operatives convicted were charged only with involvement in Abu Omar’s abduction, not for his enforced disappearance or torture.
One of the CIA operatives convicted in the kidnapping spoke last night to ABC News.
SABRINA DE SOUSA: Clearly, we broke a law, and we’re paying for the mistakes right now of whoever authorized and approved this.
The former CIA operative Sabrina De Sousa also criticized how the US government handled the trial.
SABRINA DE SOUSA: I was assigned as a representative of this government, and I should have been protected. It really is a sense of betrayal here. We’ve set a precedent for allies, foes, friends, anyone, to convict our officers overseas or indict them for whatever they feel like indicting them on.
Armando Spataro:
In Italian system of law the prosecutors are absolutely independent by the political power.
Jeffrey Castelli, the station chief in Rome, was dropped from the case. This is the American CIA, station chief. The judge decided to give the diplomatic immunity to Jeff Castelli, not only to Jeff Castelli, but also to Medero Bernie and Russomando, Mr. Russomando.
The American CIA operatives not appear in the Milan court. They were fugitive.
The prosecution office in Milan, asked to justice minister to send to US authority a possible request to arrest and extradite them on the base of a mutual convention between Italy and the United States. But the minister, refused to send this request.
If the sentenced people will come in Europe, they could be arrested, because in Europe is valid the European arrest warrant.
Scott Horton:
The twenty-three Americans who were involved here and who were convicted were involved in a conspiracy to seize Abu Omar, who is an Egyptian cleric. They evidently wanted to take him back to Egypt, and they wanted turn him, to turn him into an agent who would spy for them, for the Americans, for the CIA. And the allegations that Prosecutor Spataro has made are really remarkably thorough and detailed, and they show how this group was in Italy, how they staked out Abu Omar, and how they snatched him.
The prosecution had evidence of the internal communications by cell phones. They had hotel receipts from where the CIA people had stayed, in five-star hotels, eating expensive meals with vintage wines, rented luxury automobiles—all at taxpayers’ expense. And Prosecutor Spataro succeeded in documenting all of this, step by step, every move that they went through.
Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen who was coming through JFK Airport, going home from a family vacation to Canada—he’s a Canadian citizen—taken by authorities from JFK Airport, held for almost two weeks here in New York and then sent to Syria, where he was tortured and detained for ten months and ten days, then released to Canada.
But it raises exactly the same legal issues that Armando Spataro’s case did. And what we see is just a completely different treatment in Italy versus the United States. So the Italians, they listened to the immunity claims, they listened to all these other defenses, but nevertheless, for the Italian justice system, the extraordinary rendition process clearly was a crime.
Discussion with Armando Spataro and Scott Horton.
Armando Spataro, Italian counterterrorism prosecutor who brought the case.
Scott Horton, New York attorney specializing in international law and human rights. He is also a legal affairs contributor to Harper’s Magazine, where he writes the blog No Comment.
– from democracynow.org