Security
Italy: CIA rendition trial postponed pending secrecy ruling
Rome and Milan 3 Dec. (AKI) - The presiding judge in a controversial rendition trial has postponed it until May pending a ruling from Italy's Constitutional Court over whether state secrecy may be applied to Italian secret agents testifying at the trial, as the Italian Government claims.
Like its centre-left predecessors, the conservative government of Silvio Berlusconi is attempting to use state secrecy to prevent the incrimination of Italian secret agents at the rendition trial, prosecutor, Armando Spataro, told the court on Wednesday.
Several Italian secret agents have refused to testify in the trial of five Italian agents and 25 Americans, most of them CIA agents, charged with abducting Egyptian-born Muslim cleric and terror suspect, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, in 2003.
The government on Tuesday issued confidential guidelines to secret agents requiring them to reveal whether they believe their testimonies are covered by official secrecy.
The trial judge, Oscar Magi, in October asked the government to clarify if state secrecy would apply to orders from the former head of Italian military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, to operatives allegedly involved in the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme or other illegal operations in the fight against Islamist terrorism.
"State secrecy cannot mean impunity," said Spataro. "Despite the all the attempts to do so, you cannot stop the quest for the truth."
Berlusconi in written statements in October said that state secrecy applied to relations between Italian and foreign secret services, including rendition cases.
This "preserves the credibility" of Italian secret service agents with their foreign counterparts, he stated in letters to Italy's secret service chiefs as well as Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa.
Nasr alleges he was kidnapped from a Milan street on his way to the city's main mosque on 17 February 2003, flown to Egypt and then tortured in Egyptian custody.
Nasr's abduction allegedly took place as part of the CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' programme to abduct and secretly transfer terrorism suspects to third countries.
Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was suspected of recruiting Muslim fighters to train in Afghanistan.
Like its centre-left predecessors, the conservative government of Silvio Berlusconi is attempting to use state secrecy to prevent the incrimination of Italian secret agents at the rendition trial, prosecutor, Armando Spataro, told the court on Wednesday.
Several Italian secret agents have refused to testify in the trial of five Italian agents and 25 Americans, most of them CIA agents, charged with abducting Egyptian-born Muslim cleric and terror suspect, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, in 2003.
The government on Tuesday issued confidential guidelines to secret agents requiring them to reveal whether they believe their testimonies are covered by official secrecy.
The trial judge, Oscar Magi, in October asked the government to clarify if state secrecy would apply to orders from the former head of Italian military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, to operatives allegedly involved in the CIA's extraordinary rendition programme or other illegal operations in the fight against Islamist terrorism.
"State secrecy cannot mean impunity," said Spataro. "Despite the all the attempts to do so, you cannot stop the quest for the truth."
Berlusconi in written statements in October said that state secrecy applied to relations between Italian and foreign secret services, including rendition cases.
This "preserves the credibility" of Italian secret service agents with their foreign counterparts, he stated in letters to Italy's secret service chiefs as well as Interior Minister Roberto Maroni and Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa.
Nasr alleges he was kidnapped from a Milan street on his way to the city's main mosque on 17 February 2003, flown to Egypt and then tortured in Egyptian custody.
Nasr's abduction allegedly took place as part of the CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' programme to abduct and secretly transfer terrorism suspects to third countries.
Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was suspected of recruiting Muslim fighters to train in Afghanistan.
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