JURIST - Paper Chase: Italy court rules government can oppose indictment of agents in CIA abduction trial

[JURIST] The Italian Constitutional Court [official website] ruled Thursday that the Italian government can seek to quash the indictments of 33 American and Italian agents who allegedly kidnapped [JURIST news archive; WP timeline] Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr [Wikipedia profile] in 2003. State lawyers will argue against the indictments on the grounds that investigators considered secret documents in collecting evidence, violating state secrecy laws.

Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was seized on the streets of Milan, supposedly by CIA agents with the help of Italy's Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official website]. Nasr was then allegedly transferred to Egypt and turned over to Egypt's State Security Intelligence (SSI) [Wikipedia backgrounder], where he was allegedly tortured before being released [JURIST reports] in February 2007. The same month, an Italian judge issued indictments [JURIST report] for 26 US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents and five SISMI officials, including former SISMI chief Nicolo Pollari [Cooperative Research profile], for their alleged role in the abduction. The Italian government sought to cancel the indictments [JURIST report] last month. AKI has more.

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