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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings & Torture |
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December 15th,
2010 - Italian Court Increases Sentences for 23 CIA Agents |
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Italian Court Increases Sentences
for 23 CIA Agents By Ella Ide Agence France Presse December 15, 2010 Rome - An Italian court
upped the sentences for 23 CIA agents convicted in absentia of abducting an
Egyptian imam in one of the biggest cases against the US "extraordinary
rendition" programme. The 23 CIA agents,
originally sentenced in November 2009 to five to eight years in prison, had
their sentences increased to seven to nine years on appeal in what one of the
defence lawyers described as a "shocking blow" for the US. They were also ordered to
pay 1.5 million euros (two million dollars) in damages to the imam and his
wife for the 2003 abduction. Washington has refused to
extradite the agents, who all remain at liberty but now risk arrest if they
travel to Europe. Osama Mustafa Hassan, a
radical Islamist opposition figure better known as Abu Omar, was snatched
from a street in Milan in 2003 in an operation coordinated by the CIA and the
Italian military intelligence agency SISMI. Abu Omar, who enjoyed
political asylum in Italy, was then allegedly taken to the Aviano US air base
in northeastern Italy, then flown to a US base in Germany, and on to Cairo,
where he says he was tortured. Among the defendants
sentenced on Wednesday was Bob Seldon Lady, former head of the CIA station in
Milan, whose sentence was increased to nine years from eight. The other 22
agents had their sentences upped from five to seven years. Guido Meroni, a defence
lawyer for six of the 23 agents, said he believed the sentences had been
increased because the court had rejected the mitigating circumstances that
had led to the original judgement. "The judges had
originally ruled they had just been following orders, but it seems the court
of appeals didn't agree," he told AFP. "I am surprised. I
didn't think the sentences would be increased. Of course we will take it to
the supreme court," he added. The court also acquitted the
then head of Italian military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, and his assistant
Marco Mancini, because producing evidence against them would have violated
state secrecy rules. In an earlier hearing on
Wednesday, the court ordered a re-trial for three other CIA officers,
including the then CIA chief for Italy Jeffrey Castelli, because of
irregularities in the appeal procedures. In the first trial they had
benefited from diplomatic immunity and had been acquitted. Their lawyer, Alessia
Sorgato, said the court had taken a hard line against the other agents. "It's a shocking blow
for the Americans," she said. Amnesty International
welcomed the judgement, but said that Italy's role in the affair should also
be examined. "The Italian government
and its officials should not be able to use 'state secrecy' as a shield to
cover up human rights abuse," said Amnesty's counter-terrorism
specialist Julia Hall. "The government must
engage in a full and fair accountability process even if its official are
embarrassed or even vulnerable to criminal charges for their actions,"
she added. "Kidnapping is a crime,
not a 'state secret'." The "extraordinary
rendition" programme was launched in 2003 by then US president George W.
Bush and saw scores of suspects returned to their home countries, some of
which were known to use torture. Abu Omar's US captors failed
to take many standard precautions, notably speaking openly on cell phones,
leaving investigators to suspect they had cleared their intentions with
Italian intelligence. Copyright © 2010 AFP. External link: http://tinyurl.com/2w3ujy4 |