Rome – Prosecutors have renewed their request for the extradition of 26 Americans in the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003, a prosecutor in the northern city said Tuesday.
The previous government led by conservative Premier Silvio Berlusconi decided against forwarding the request, but Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro said his office has completed the paperwork and sent a new request to the justice minister in the center-left government led by Romano Prodi.
Prosecutors recently announced the conclusion of an investigation against 26 Americans and several Italian intelligence officials.
They include Nicolo Pollari, director of the military intelligence agency SISMI and the highest-ranking Italian official named in the case.
The prosecutors are expected to seek indictments soon.
All but one of the Americans are believed to be CIA agents, including former station chiefs in Rome and Milan.
The other American has been identified as a U.S. Air Force officer stationed at the time at Aviano air base, near Venice.
Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, an Egyptian cleric and terrorist suspect also known as Abu Omar, was allegedly abducted from a Milan street in February 2003 and flown out of Italy from Aviano.
The operation is believed to be part of an alleged CIA “extraordinary rendition” program in which terrorism suspects are transferred to third countries where some allegedly are subjected to torture.
Prosecutors say the operation was conducted by CIA agents with assistance from Italian agents, and have called it a breach of Italian sovereignty that compromised their own anti-terrorism efforts.
They say Nasr was flown via the joint U.S.-Italian Aviano air base and Germany to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.
Berlusconi has maintained his government and Italian secret services were not informed about the operation and did not take part in it.
However, prosecutors say that top officials at SISMI – including Pollari – collaborated with the Americans to abduct Nasr.
Italian Justice Minister Clemente Mastella was recently quoted as saying that any decision on an extradition request in the case would have to be taken by the Cabinet, not just himself.
