CIA Agents To Stand Trial For Italy Kidnapping

A Milan judge on Friday ordered 26 Americans most of them thought to be CIA agents to stand trial.

A Milan judge on Friday ordered 26 Americans, most of them thought to be CIA agents, to stand trial with Italian spies for the kidnapping in 2003 of a terrorism suspect, who was flown to Egypt where he says he was tortured.

Among those indicted are the former heads of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Rome and Milan, Jeff Castelli and Robert Lady, and the former head of Italy's SISMI military intelligence agency, Nicolo Pollari, court sources said.

The trial, set to begin on June 8, will be the first criminal trial over "renditions" -- one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.

Washington acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries but denies using or sanctioning torture, and is not expected to hand over the Americans for trial.

Prosecutors say a CIA-led team, with SISMI's help, grabbed Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, off a Milan street in February 2003, bundled him into a van and drove him to a military base in northern Italy.

From there, prosecutors allege the CIA flew him via Germany to Egypt where he says he was tortured with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.

He was released from prison on Sunday and says he would like to return to Italy -- where a judge has issued a warrant for his arrest over suspicion of terrorist activity.

"I have been reduced to a wreck of a human being," he told ANSA news agency after his release. In another interview this week he said he could hardly walk: "They burst my kidneys."

EUROPEAN BACKLASH

The case is being closely watched in Europe. The European Parliament approved a report on Wednesday saying governments in the region helped conceal secret U.S. transfers of terrorism suspects.

A court in Munich issued arrest warrants last month for 13 suspected CIA agents accused of kidnapping a German of Lebanese descent and flying him to a jail in Afghanistan, where he too says he was tortured.

The Italians linked to the Nasr case have been defending themselves tooth-and-nail, in the process making compromising statements about their American counterparts and each other.

All claim to have personally refused to help the CIA in the kidnap itself, except an Italian police officer who says he was told by the CIA's Milan station chief that the purpose was to recruit the imam as an informer -- not abduct him.

The policeman, Luciano Pironi, made a plea bargain agreement and was sentenced on Friday to 1 year and 9 months in prison. (Additional reporting by Jane Barrett in Madrid)