CIA rendition trial begins
Friday, 08 Jun 2007 06:39
Terror suspects are thought to be secretly flown between countries by the CIA
The controversial policy of rendition, adopted by America's central intelligence agency in the war against terror, will come under new scrutiny today when the first criminal trial concerning the practice opens in Italy.
Italian prosecutors have accused 26 US citizens, most of them believed to be CIA agents, of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect in Milan and sending him to Egypt - where he was allegedly tortured.
Defence lawyers are expected to press for the trial to be adjourned in order to wait for a ruling later this summer by Italy's highest court, which has been asked by the country's government to throw out the case amid fears it could damage relations with the US and involve the disclosure of documents which will undermine secrecy laws.
In an embarrassing coincidence for the Italian government the opening of the trial coincides with the arrival of US president George Bush in Rome, where he is due to hold talks with the country's prime minister Romano Prodi and Pope Benedict XVI.
The proceedings are likely to lead to further criticism of the CIA over its use of renditions – the secret practice of transferring terror suspects between countries without public legal proceedings.
Yesterday a coalition of human rights groups produced a list of 39 'ghost detainees' they claim are being held in secret custody as part of the US-led war on terror.
In the first criminal case concerning the use of rendition, the 26 Americans accused of abducting terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr are due to be tried in a Milan court in absentia. Italy has yet to announce whether it will seek their extradition over the case.
Six Italian spies are also accused of helping the US defendants in the kidnapping of Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was supposedly snatched from a Milan street in February 2003.
Prosecutors say Nasr, suspected of recruiting fighters for radical Islamic groups at the time of his disappearance, was taken to US bases in Italy and Germany before being transferred to Egypt.
During four years of subsequent imprisonment in the Egyptian capital Cairo he was tortured, they claim.
Washington officials have already indicated that the US government will not agree to send the American defendants in the trial to Italy if a request is made for their extradition.