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Italy indicts 26 in CIA kidnap case

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published February 17, 2007

MILAN, Italy - An Italian judge indicted 25 suspected CIA agents and a U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel Friday in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric who had been under investigation for recruiting Islamist fighters.

The indictment paves the way for Italy to put the Americans, along with five Italians, on trial in June in the first criminal case involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

The Americans have all left Italy, and it is unlikely that they would be turned over for prosecution, even if Italy requests their extradition - a move that would strain relations between Rome and Washington.

All but one of the Americans have been identified as CIA agents, including former Milan station chief Robert Seldon Lady and former Rome station chief Jeffrey Castelli. The other is Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph L. Romano III, who was stationed at the time at Aviano.

Prosecutors believe that many of the American names in the indictment are aliases.

All of the U.S. agents have court-appointed lawyers, who say they have had no contact with their clients. In Italy, defendants can be tried in absentia.

Prosecutors allege that five Italian intelligence officials worked with the Americans to abduct Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003.

Nasr was allegedly taken to Aviano Air Base near Venice, to Ramstein Air Base in southern Germany, and then to Egypt, where he was held for four years and, according to his lawyer, tortured. He was freed this week by an Egyptian court that ruled his detention was "unfounded."

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said, "This is an issue that is before the judiciary in Italy" and declined further comment. The CIA did not comment on the case, which has put an uncomfortable spotlight on intelligence operations.

[Last modified February 17, 2007, 00:51:37]