There is concern in the Muslim community over being kidnapped on terror charges by US intelligence services

Milan imam wins abduction case against CIA
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:00:56 GMT

Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (Abu Omar)
http://www.presstv.ir/photo/20091106/shamseddin20091106190657250.jpg

The lawyer for the Italian imam kidnapped by the US
intelligence service hails the conviction of the former CIA
agents as 'a just reaffirmation of responsibility'.

On Tuesday, a court in Milan found 22 former CIA agents and
a retired US Air Force colonel guilty in absentia for the
abduction of Milan imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also
known as Abu Omar, in 2003.

Nasr, who was kidnapped over alleged suspicions of
recruiting fighters, says he was tortured and threatened
with rape after he was transferred to Cairo by his American
kidnappers.

The Egyptian cleric and his wife were awarded 1.5 million
euros in damages in Tuesday's verdict.

"Of course the sentence is certainly important," Nasr's
lawyer, Carmelo Scambia, said in an interview with Press TV,
describing the treatment of Abu Omar as 'criminal' and 'an
illegal act punishable under law'.

The uncovering of the abduction has raised concerns within
the Italian Muslim community of being kidnapped over
baseless terror charges pressed by US intelligence services,
backed by their European counterparts.

Italy's judiciary, which is independent of the government,
went ahead with the case despite a successful government
suit invoking secrecy that ruled out much of the evidence
and resulted in three CIA operatives obtaining immunity.

Two top former Italian spies were also cleared of all
charges due to secrecy norms while two less senior
operatives were convicted.

The 23 former US agents are not likely to serve time behind
the bars, but will not be able to return to Europe, where
their arrest warrants remain active.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Thursday
sympathized with the US for its 'disappointment' with the
Milan court's conviction of its agents, but stressed that
the ''judges' decisions have to be respected even when you
don't agree with them.''

The two-year Milan trial was the first case in which the
controversial US practice of 'extraordinary rendition' was
challenged in court.

Rendition was first authorized by former US president Bill
Clinton in the 1990s and stepped up after George W. Bush
declared his so-called war on terror following the September
11, 2001 attacks.

MRS/HGH

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