Guilty: CIA men who seized cleric off street

TWENTY-THREE CIA agents have been found guilty of kidnapping a Muslim cleric from an Italian street – and ordered to pay him 1 million in damages.

After a landmark "extraordinary rendition" trial, the head of the CIA's Milan station, Robert Seldon Lady, received the longest sentence – eight years – while his 22 spy colleagues were each given five years. However, none of the Americans was in court for the verdict and they are not expected to serve their sentences.

The trial centred on the kidnap of cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, on 17 February, 2003, from a street in Milan. He was then taken to a United States airbase at Aviano, near Venice, before being flown on to Germany and then, finally, Egypt.

He was held there for four years before being released without charge. The cleric claimed he had been tortured while being held.

This was the first time an extraordinary rendition case had been brought to trial anywhere in the world.

Judge Oscar Magi took three hours to reach his decision. While he found the 23 CIA men guilty, he cleared former Italian Secret Service director Niccolo Pollari and his colleague Marco Mancini.

Prosecutors had asked that they be given 13 years and ten years in jail respectively, but the judge said he could not reach a verdict on them because of aspects of the case governed by state secrecy.

However, two Italian agents, Pio Pompa and Luciano Seno, were found guilty for their part in the kidnap and given three years each. The then head of the CIA in Italy, Jeff Castelli, was cleared because of diplomatic immunity.

Judge Magi also ordered all those found guilty to contribute to the 1m (£895,000) damages he awarded Abu Omar as well as a further 500,000 for the cleric's wife.

Despite not securing convictions for all the accused, prosecutor Armando Spataro said he felt vindicated by the result of the trial. "The verdicts have established the truth uncovered by our investigation," he said.

Defence lawyers had argued they were unable properly to defend their clients due to a state secrecy injunction obtained by the Italian government.

The trial was seen by many critics as a sham, as the Italians had said they would not be seeking the extradition of the Americans – but it did cause tension between the two countries.

It also saw friction between prosecutors and the Italian government, which obtained a Constitutional Court ruling that some evidence was covered by state secrecy.

During the two-year trial in Milan, the CIA refused to comment and its officers remained silent, until Lady told an Italian newspaper during the summer that he had been "only following orders".

Speaking from a secret location, the now retired CIA man said: "I console myself by reminding myself that I was a soldier, that I was in a war against terrorism, that I couldn't discuss orders given to me."

Joanne Mariner, of Human Rights Watch, said the verdict "sends a strong signal of the crimes committed by the CIA in Europe". Those crimes were "unacceptable and unjustified," said Ms Mariner, who was in the court room for the verdict at the end of the trial.

In Washington, CIA spokesman George Little declined to comment on the convictions. He said: "The CIA has not commented on any of the allegations surrounding Abu Omar."

THE MAN THEY KIDNAPPED

ABU Omar is a member of al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an Islamic movement dedicated to the overthrow of the Egyptian government.

The group has been linked to the murder of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 and a terrorist campaign in the 1990s that culminated in the massacre of western tourists in Luxor in November 1997. As a result, it is considered a terrorist organisation by the both the United States and European Union.

After the Egyptians declared the group illegal, Nasr sought asylum in Italy. His seizure while walking to a Milan mosque was described by Swiss investigator Dick Marty as a "perfect example of extraordinary rendition".