|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
|
May 20th,
2009 - Milan Judge Says CIA Trial Continues News article from the Associated
Press |
|
Milan Judge Says CIA Trial Continues By Colleen Barry Associated Press May 20, 2009 Milan - The trial of 26
Americans and seven Italians accused of orchestrating a CIA-led kidnapping of
an Egyptian cleric will proceed despite an Italian Supreme Court ruling that
barred key evidence as classifed, a judge ruled Wednesday. The two-year trial is the
first by any government over the CIA's so-called extraordinary rendition
program of transferring suspects overseas for interrogation. Human rights
advocates charge that renditions were the agency's way to outsource torture
of prisoners to countries where it is permitted. Successive Italian
governments have denied any involvement in the Feb. 17, 2003 abduction of
Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a
Milan street. Prosecutors say Nasr was transported in a van to a joint
U.S.-Italian base in northern Italy, flown to a U.S. air base in Germany and
onward to Egypt where he said he was tortured. He has since been released
without charge. Judge Oscar Magi rejected
defense motions aimed at stopping the trial, and said it will proceed next
week with the classified evidence expunged from the proceedings as ruled by
Italy's Supreme Court. Defense lawyers predicted
speedy proceedings as the ruling Wednesday also disallowed most of their
witnesses - including Premier Silvio Berlusconi and his predecessor Romano
Prodi - because their testimony would inevitably touch on classified data.
The prosecution has closed its case. Prosecutor Armando Spataro
welcomed the decision to continue the trial, though he disagreed in principle
with the high court's decision to remove evidence. The prosecution has argued
that it did not violate any state secrets in gathering evidence, and that any
evidence relating to a criminal act cannot be considered classified. "We need to verify if
the obstacles that the Supreme Court placed can be overcome to arrive at the
truth," Spataro said, adding that certain evidence will have to be
"surgically removed." Spataro said, for example,
that the ruling will allow the inclusion of most of a statement by Luciano
Pironi, a carabinieri officer who acknowledged participating in the
kidnapping. The ruling strikes Pironi's tesimony any reference to how the CIA
and Italian intelligence operated, but leaves untouched his statment that the
CIA Milan station chief Bob Seldon Lady asked him to join the operation,
Spataro said. Defense lawyers were mixed
in their reaction. Luigi Panella, a lawyer for the former deputy chief of
Italian military intelligence Marco Mancini said the exclusion of the
evidence dealt a fatal blow to the prosecution's case. But the lawyer for Mancini's
former boss, Nicolo Pollari, said the ruling made it impossible to prove his
client's innocence. Pollari's defense wanted to
call Berlusconi, Prodi and other top officials "demonstrate
incontrovertibly that Pollari had nothing to do with the presumed
kidnapping," lawyer Nicola Madia said. "The trial is a dead
end," Madia said. "It will continue only as a formality." Spataro said that it was
already established earlier in the case that diplomatic immunity does not
apply because the potential penalty of up to eight years in jail exceeds the
five-year maximum on invoking diplomatic privileges in Italy. Copyright © 2009 The
Associated Press. External link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iFK6jJ12W23VZD-Hsw_RZIo67JnwD98A2CL00 Italy
continues CIA trial despite secrecy ruling By Stephen Brown Reuters May 20, 2009 Rome - An Italian judge
ruled on Wednesday to proceed with the trial of U.S. and Italian spies
accused of kidnapping an Egyptian imam in 2003; Europe's highest-profile case
over the secret transfers of terrorism suspects. A Milan judge rejected a
defense request to lift arrest warrants against the 26 Americans, most of
whom are believed to be CIA agents, despite some of the evidence being made
inadmissible by state secrecy rules. The U.S. agents and seven
Italians are accused of abducting Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in
Milan and flying him to Egypt. Nasr, who is also known as Abu Omar, said he
was tortured under questioning and held for years without charges. Judge Oscar Magi was
responding to a March constitutional court ruling that said some evidence was
classified, prompting the defense to ask him to toss out the whole Abu Omar
case. "The judge's ruling is
positive because all of the defense's requests were rejected and the trial is
going ahead," prosecutor Armando Spataro told Reuters by telephone from
Milan. The decision to push ahead
with the trial comes while the United States is debating the harsh
interrogation of terrorism suspects and whether to prosecute the officials
responsible. The U.S. government has refused to extradite the 26 spies in the
Italian case. Pressure is building for a
full investigation after U.S. President Barack Obama released memos detailing
interrogation techniques such as waterboarding and sleep deprivation. Harder To Build Case Magi said that neither
Italy's prime minister at the time, Silvio Berlusconi, nor his successor,
Romano Prodi, could be called as witnesses because any evidence they might
have would be covered by state secrecy rules. Defense lawyers had asked
for them to take the stand to strengthen arguments that Italian agents should
be protected from prosecution by state secrecy rules. Spataro said that from
his point of view they were "irrelevant" as witnesses. Berlusconi, now prime
minister again, has denied any Italian role in Abu Omar' disappearance and
has argued the case risked ostracizing the country from the global
intelligence community if secrets about Italian cooperation with the CIA were
exposed in open court. Titta Madia, the lawyer
defending the former head of the Italian secret service, General Nicolo
Pollari, told reporters that because of the state secrecy ruling, the Milan
trial was now "at a dead end. It is only going ahead to save face." Spataro rejected her
comments but conceded that the judge's acceptance of the constitutional
court's dismissal of evidence due to state secrecy rules "will obviously
involve a big effort from the prosecution in gathering evidence in
future." Arianna Barbazza, the
court-appointed Italian lawyer for suspects including the former CIA station
chief in Milan, was not immediately available for comment, her office said. Additional reporting by
Emilio Parodi in Milan; writing by Stephen Brown; Editing by Jon Hemming. External link: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE54J3AI20090520 Milan Judge Says CIA Trial
to Continue, With Restrictions By Elisabetta Povoledo New York Times May 20, 2009 Milan - A judge here ruled
Wednesday that the trial of seven Italians and 26 Americans, alleged
intelligence agents accused of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric suspected of
terrorist activities, will continue but with restrictions on the evidence
that can be produced in court. After considering an Italian
Supreme Court ruling last March, which banned the use of any classified
material in the proceedings, Judge Oscar Magi ruled that the prosecution
could resume its case, but without referring to any joint operations
involving Italian and American secret services. The March ruling excluded
much of the evidence on which the prosecution case had been built, including
material seized from Italian and American intelligence operatives. Reading from his 15-page
ruling on Wednesday, Judge Magi spoke of “very slippery ground, setting two
constitutional principles against each other - the security of the state and
the right to defend oneself.” The case is the first to
test the contentious American program of “extraordinary rendition,” in which
terrorism suspects are sent for interrogation to other countries, some of
which use torture. On trial are 26 Americans, all but one of them operatives
of the Central Intelligence Agency, and seven members of the Italian military
intelligence agency. They are accused of abducting the cleric, Osama Moustafa
Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, in Milan on Feb. 17, 2003. Prosecutors allege
that the cleric was flown from an American air base in Italy to an American
air base in Germany, then to Egypt, where he claims he was tortured.
Classified material had been at the heart of the case. All the Americans are being
tried in absentia. The trial has been
politically embarrassing for a succession of Italian governments, which have
supported the American campaign against terrorism. One question, which may
never be answered, is whether the Italian government was aware of the alleged
kidnapping and condoned the action. The ruling on Wednesday
means that any reference to possible collaboration between secret service
agencies will no longer be admissible. Both defendants and witnesses will be
able to refuse to answer questions by pleading that it is classified
material. “It shows that it is
impossible for our client to defend himself” because the ruling establishes
that “state secrecy is an impassable impediment for the trial,” said Nicola
Madia, the lawyer for Nicolo Pollari, the former chief of Italian military
intelligence. The trial began two years
ago and has been beset by legal challenges. Last week, one of the defendants,
Sabrina De Sousa, filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., demanding the State
Department invoke diplomatic immunity to halt the prosecution. External link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/world/europe/21italy.html |