Milan, Italy – An Italian prosecutor on Tuesday requested the indictment of 26 Americans and five Italian secret-service officials in the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan – a case that continues to be an irritant to U.S.-Italian relations.
Prosecutor Armando Spataro said the indictment request is aimed at CIA agents and the former head of Italian military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, for alleged involvement in the kidnapping.
Prosecutors have identified all but one of the Americans as CIA agents, including former station chiefs in Rome and Milan, and the 26th as a U.S. Air Force officer stationed at the time at Aviano air base near Venice.
Last month, Spataro asked the center-left government of Romano Prodi to request the Americans’ extradition; he has not received a response.
The operation was believed to be part of an alleged CIA “extraordinary rendition” program in which terrorism suspects are transferred to third countries where some allegedly are tortured.
It is the first known prosecution of alleged participants in such operations, which have come under growing criticism by America’s allies in Europe.
The United States and Italy have an extradition treaty, although it was not likely that CIA agents would be turned over for trial abroad.
The previous government of conservative Silvio Berlusconi had refused to request the Americans’ extradition.
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.
Spataro also is seeking indictments on charges of aiding and abetting against two other secret-service officials and the deputy director of the newspaper Libero, Renato Farina. Four others – three secret-service officials and a reporter for Libero – were dropped from the investigation.
From the outset, U.S. officials have declined to comment.
