Posted on 02/06/2007 1:56:21 PM PST by knighthawk
MILAN (Reuters) - Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi will not be called to testify on behalf of Italy's former spy chief, who is accused of helping the CIA kidnap a terrorism suspect, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
Prosecutors want to try 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, for grabbing Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street in 2003 and flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.
Italy's former spy chief Nicolo Pollari, who risks indictment on suspicion of aiding the CIA mission, wanted Prodi and Berlusconi to defend him at a preliminary hearing since he says information proving his innocence is classified.
But Judge Caterina Interlandi ruled that the men's testimony was not relevant to her decision on whether there is enough evidence to warrant a trial, legal sources said.
She further ruled that state secrecy rules did not apply to the kidnapping case, despite Pollari's claims to the contrary.
If she orders a trial, as looks increasingly likely after Tuesday's ruling, it would be the first criminal procedure over renditions -- one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's global war on terrorism.
The case is being closely watched all over Europe, where judicial authorities in several countries are investigating accusations of CIA secret prisons and secret transfers of U.S. terrorism suspects.
A judge in Germany last week ordered the arrest of 13 people linked to the abduction of a German national who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA.
"THEY KNEW I WOULD SAY NO"
The judge also rejected Pollari's challenge to the case on constitutional grounds, since it involved state secrets that he argued had limited his defense, and dismissed a challenge by one of his ex-deputies on the issue of jurisdiction.
Pollari's lawyer said his client will now have to evaluate whether to, in his view, break state secrecy laws, since it appears it would be his only means of defending himself.
Without discussing the case in depth, Pollari told La Stampa newspaper last week that the CIA would not have asked his permission to kidnap Nasr, also known as Abu Omar.
"The CIA never said anything to me about Abu Omar. And the motive is very simple: They knew well that illegal activity was not allowed under my administration of the secret services."
But he also cast doubt on whether Nasr was even kidnapped by the CIA -- saying it could have been "an agreed disappearance."
Italian police officer Luciano Pironi has admitted he helped CIA agents grab Nasr, but said he was told the goal was to recruit the Muslim cleric as an informer. He said he was told the U.S. and Italian governments had approved the operation.
Italy has denied this. Berlusconi, then prime minister, has expressed his "full solidarity" with the Italian agents.
Prodi's government has acknowledged the existence of classified documents related to the case, without discussing their contents.
Washington acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries, but denies torturing suspects or handing them to countries that do.
Nasr -- held in a prison south of Cairo -- has said in written testimony he was tortured by Egyptian agents using electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.
International rights groups say torture is systematic in Egyptian jails and police stations. Egypt says it does not condone torture, and that it only occurs in isolated instances.
Ping
OOPS!
Yes, well, let's first define torture. Panties on the head qualifies when it's a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer talking--but when they're doing the torturing, beheading is just normal treatment.
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