ROME,
June 24, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Italian
authorities have ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents accused of
kidnapping a Muslim imam in northern Italy.
Judge
Chiara Nobili issued the arrest warrants against the CIA agents for
kidnapping Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr and flying him to Egypt, Agence
France Presse (AFP) reported quoting the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
The
warrants were issued at the request of the anti-terrorist division of
the state prosecutor's office, the daily said.
Nasr,
the former imam of a Milan mosque, was abducted on February 17, 2003
as he was walking from home to mosque and bundled into a white van.
He
was then moved to the US military base at Aviano in northern Italy,
and from there to an Egyptian jail.
According
to Italian court documents, police and prosecutors in Milan identified
19 Americans, four of them women, suspected of playing a role in the
abduction.
Italian
prosecutors believe the agents kidnapped the imam as part of the CIA's
"extraordinary rendition" program, which allows the transfer
of suspects to third countries without court approval.
The
CIA has kept details of rendition cases a closely guarded secret, but
has defended the controversial practice as an effective and legal way
to prevent terrorism.
No
Comment
"We
know some of the identities of these (suspects) with certainty, but
with others we are not sure of their true identity," judicial
sources told Reuters.
No
one has been arrested so far, and the suspects are no longer in Italy,
they said.
According
to the daily, the Italian investigators are in possession of
photographs of all the agents involved in the operation, as well as
details of their accommodation, mobile telephones, passports and
credit card records.
A
former US consul to Milan was among those ordered arrested, the daily
said.
An
Italian official said the government would ask the US for
"judicial assistance" but did not specify whether it would
seek extradition of the 13.
However,
the US Embassy in Rome and the CIA in Washington declined to comment
on the report.
"I
don't have any facts or comments for you about those reports,"
State Department spokesman J. Adam Ereli said.
The
State Department said any extradition requests from Italy would be
handled by the Justice Department.
“First
Case”
The
case marks the first known instance of a foreign government filing
criminal charges against US operatives for their alleged role in an
overseas mission.
Following
Nasr’ disappearance, Italian police opened a missing person
investigation, but the case hit a deadlock for more than a year.
But
suddenly in April 2004, Abu Omar's wife received a telephone call from
her husband in April 2004, telling her that he had been abducted and
taken to a US air base in Italy before being flown to Cairo where he
had been tortured and kept naked in subfreezing temperatures.
Afterwards,
Milan prosecutors twice asked the Egyptian authorities for information
on the whereabouts of the Milan imam, who is under investigation in
Italy as part of an inquiry into "international terrorism",
but to no avail.
Authorities
in Canada, Sweden and Germany are also investigating whether the
CIA-sponsored operations violated local laws.
