Milan - Judges in Milan held a second preliminary hearing
Monday to decide whether to indict United States and Italian
spies for the abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect.
A total of 35 people, including 26 CIA agents and top officials
from Italy's military intelligence agency SISMI, risk going on trial
over their involvement in a so-called 'extraordinary rendition'
operation as part of President George W. Bush's global war on
terrorism.
Should judges decide to indict the defendants, it would be the
first time that the controversial practice was to be made accountable
to the law.
The case dates back to February 2003, when an Egyptian imam
disappeared from the streets of Milan and was secretly flown to
Egypt.
Prosecutor Armando Spataro argues that US agents abducted the
Muslim cleric with the help of their Italian colleagues. The Italian
government of the time, led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has
publicly denied any knowledge of the operation.
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, who is known in Italy as Abu Omar, has
claimed he was tortured and beaten during questioning in an Egyptian
cell.
Present in court Monday was the former head of SISMI, Nicolo
Pollari. Pollari was expected to argue that he would not be able to
defend himself from the charges unless he revealed sensitive state
secrets.
None of his CIA colleagues are believed to be in Italy. And with
previous prosecutors' requests for their extradition having failed,
legal experts argue that they are unlikely to be turned over to Italy
for trial.
Last week, the European Union parliament approved a report
slamming EU members like Italy for tolerating or assisting the United
States' practice of secret detentions of terrorist suspects.
The text criticized EU states over their failure to fulfil
'European obligations, such as the respect of human rights.'
More than 1,245 CIA-operated flights flew over European airspace
or stopped over at airports in Europe, Euro MPs concluded, urging
member states to investigate these so-called rendition flights.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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