US Will Not Extradite CIA Agents

Al Jazeera.net (English) reported on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 that:

The US will not meet any request by Italy to extradite 26 Americans, most thought to be CIA agents, to stand trial over the kidnapping of a Muslim imam, the US state department's legal adviser has said.

John Bellinger, at a news briefing in Brussels, said on Wednesday: "We've not got an extradition request from Italy."

"If we got an extradition request from Italy, we would not extradite US officials to Italy."

Bellinger's comments confirm widespread expectations that Washington would not hand over the indictees, who will now most likely be tried in absentia when the trial begins on June 8.

Prosecutors say a CIA-led team, with SISMI's help, grabbed terrorism suspect Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, off a Milan street in February 2003, bundled him into a van and drove him to a military base in northern Italy.

From there, prosecutors allege the CIA flew him via Germany to Egypt where he says he was tortured with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.

A European Parliament report published this month concluded that renditions were illegal and had gone on with the collusion of a number of European governments and their secret services.
Bellinger rejected the findings of the parliament report as "unbalanced, inaccurate and unfair".