MILAN, Italy, Nov. 4, 2009
23 Americans Convicted in Italy-CIA Case
Italian Judge Gives Americans 5 to 8 Years for Extraordinary Rendition of Egyptian Cleric
-
Prosecutor Armando Spataro speaks at a Milan court, Italy, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. An Italian judge convicted 26 Americans accused of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect in 2003, the first trial in the world involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
An Italian judge on Wednesday convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street, in a landmark case involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program in the war on terrorism.
Citing diplomatic immunity, Judge Oscar Magi told the Milan courtroom Wednesday that he was acquitting three other Americans.
Former Milan CIA station chief, Robert Seldon Lady, received the stiffest sentence, eight years in prison. The other 22 convicted American defendants each received a five-year sentence.
The Americans, all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents, were tried in absentia. Their lawyers entered innocent pleas on their client's behalf. They are considered fugitives from Italian justice.
"This is largely symbolic because the Americans never showed up and it's unlikely our government is somehow going to hand them over now. But the symbolism, especially in the Arab world, will be and is very intense," CBS News chief legal analyst Andrew Cohen says.
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 kidnapped man.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Wednesday that the United States would not comment further because the judge had not issued a written opinion. But he said the Obama administration was "disappointed about the verdicts."
Magi said he was acquitting five Italian defendants because Italy withheld evidence, contending it was classified information. Two of the Italian defendants were convicted as accomplices to kidnapping and received three-year sentences, which despite the state secrecy imposed, indicates that Italian officials were complicit.
The verdict "sends a strong signal of the crimes committed by the CIA in Europe," said Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch. The crimes were "unacceptable and unjustified," said Mariner, who was in the courtroom for the verdict at the end of the nearly 3-year-long trial.
More coverage of the CIA rendition trial:
Prison Requested in CIA Rendition Case
Italian PM Can Testify In CIA Kidnap Case
Rendition Trial Puts U.S. On Hot Seat
Report: CIA Ran Secret Prisons In Europe
The Americans were accused of kidnapping Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, on Feb. 17, 2003, in Milan, then transferring him to U.S. bases in Italy and Germany. He was then moved to Egypt, where he says he was tortured. He was released after four years in prison without being charged.
The trial is the first by any government over the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, which transferred suspects overseas for interrogation. Human rights advocates charge that renditions were the CIA's way to outsource the torture of prisoners to countries where it is permitted.
The Milan proceedings have been a sore spot in relations between the United States and Italy. The CIA has declined to comment on the case, and Italy's government has denied involvement.
Among the Americans acquitted was Jeffrey Castelli, a former Rome CIA station chief, who prosecutors had alleged coordinated the abduction. The two other acquitted Americans were also assigned to the U.S. Embassy in the Italian capital and thus were covered by broad diplomatic immunity.
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More From World
Add a Comment See all 54 Comments
- I say we give Obama til June to do the right thing. If by then, he has still done nothing about these war crimes, we should impeach him and throw him under the bus.
Either we are a country of law and order, or we're no better than the Taliban. - Reply to this comment
- We all must agree not to support Obama any longer unless he turns these people over to Italy. As it stands, unless these monsters are punished Obama is guilty of complicity. He is obstructing justice. That is not the kind of leadership we need.
We need to send a clear message to Washington. If Obama is going to behave like a coward, we should treat him like one. - Reply to this comment
- The perfect ending to this story would be Italy kidnapping these people and bringing them serve their sentences. I'd like to see our officials squirm and carry on when it is our people being kidnapped by foreign governments. What could they say? "We can do it, but you cannot..." Nope, that just won't work. Too bad.
Now, perhaps they will prosecute Bush and Cheney too. They should be hanged by their necks. - Reply to this comment
- They should have prosecuted Bush and Chenet too.
- Reply to this comment
- if the US is a third world country with no laws, rules, no equality nor freedom and incapable of prosecuting it's own criminals, that's our problem, we made the country we deserve, but if an american violates the law in foreign soil than this person must pay the price in that country whatever that is.
- Reply to this comment
- I sure wish they would name the offenders! I wouldn't mind flipping the script, abducting the CIA fools, dropping them off in Italy and claiming the bounty.
- Reply to this comment
- I am by no means a conservative. I think the Iraq war was a big mistake. But when it comes to fighting terrorism a quote from the movie "THE TERMINATOR" comes to mind: Terrorists are like the terminator, "They can't be reasoned or bargained with, they don't feel pity or remorse and they absolutely will not stop until you are dead."
- Reply to this comment
-
- The problem is --everyone of a certain nationality or from a certain country or who practice a certain religion are NOT terrorists but in our zeal to catch the bad guys we harm a lot of innocent people--then we are no longer the good guys to the people we harm, we are as bad or worse than the terrorist. One groups acts is no excuse for persecuting hundreds of thousands of people. American do evil things abroad--heaven help us if the rest of the world start thinking any/all Americans are fair game to kill or harm or torture or rendition as proxy for what a certain other American has done. IN other words, imagine our plight if what we did all over the world started being done to us. Think America would condone or allow its citizens to be blatantly kidnapped, sent to other countries and tortured for years? Think we would be happy with a sham trial where the other countries refused to turn over those who kidnapped? What if this sort of thing happened to YOU or your daughter or your son? One person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter or CIA or covert ops. Point made?
- This "high and mighty" approach taken by America during it's own "middle ages" (2001-2008) are just what inflames Arabs and enhances the recruitment of indignant young Arabs by terrorists.
These agents were told to conduct international crimes.
They accepted the mission knowing it was illegal.
And the U.S. harbors and protects them.
Who would not expect ramifications from such a display of indifference to law?
Only a moron, that's who. - Reply to this comment
- These halfwits are war criminals who knowingly violated U.S. and international law. They are criminals and they deserve to die in prison.
They didn't hesitate to violate the rights of others, so they deserve nothing less than than to be treated accordingly. The fact that they were stupid enough to follow orders they knew violated the law does not make them somehow less guilty of the crimes they committed. Yes, their commanders should all rot behind bars, but that does not vindicate the actions of these lawless mutants. - Reply to this comment
- If I do it, it isn't wrong...
- Reply to this comment
- "An American stands for truth and justice.
An American stands for the rule of law and the right of the accused to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
An American stands for human rights and the humane treatment of even the most heinous criminal.
An American stands for our Constitution, and the just punishment of all those who would violate or subvert it.
As for those living on our soil who disavow these principals, I know not what they are, only that they are not American."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - Reply to this comment
- "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself."
Thomas Paine, Dissertation on First Principles of Government, December 23, 1791
A Future of the Brave - Reply to this comment
- allegations surrounding Abu Omar,
This is about the Terrorist guy and the Italian forget who help they country ?????? - Reply to this comment
- Uhm...We liberate the Eu and now this is how they are treated CIA ...I said remove missiles defense get out of UN and let them defense they own...
- Reply to this comment
- yes i have proof andit has been forwarded
- Reply to this comment
- "Cruelty and brutality are evidence of evil, not strength."
SearingTruth
A Future of the Brave - Reply to this comment
- So what, we got a bad guy off the streets and gave them to Egypt. Italy you are good for 2 things Ferrari and shoes so sit down and go back to work.
- Reply to this comment
-
- "So what" -- dwilson59
The CIA goes around the world, kidnapping people, torturing people, killing people, and selling drugs to make money to support their evil acts. If you LIKE what they are doing, you are a sick b@st@rd.
- "So what" -- dwilson59
- "It is a happy circumstance in human affairs that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves in some other."
Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Sinclair, 1791
A Future of the Brave - Reply to this comment
- The shoe on the other foot. Justice seeks itself. They have harassed those who spoke out against the war in Iraq and the Bush adminstration. Now they get a taste of their own medicine. Military helicopter flying over or not and mail torn open, I am speaking my piece. It is democracy.
- Reply to this comment
- If America stands for anything it stands for the rule of law. No one is above the law including the CIA. This is the important aspect of this issue where the rule of law is apparently more important in Italy than it is in the US. Same on us Americans for not bringing this matter to court ourselves before Italy had to do it.
- Reply to this comment
