For those interested in reading the Italian coverage of yesterday’s first ever convictions for the U.S. government’s practice of ‘renditioning,’ this is the write-thru from the Corriere Della Sera, which includes a number of interesting quotes and details not found in the wire reports.
After the verdict that found all 23 CIA defendants guilty of kidnapping a former Muslim cleric from the streets if Milan was announced, the Corriere Della Sera write-thru quotes Milan’s deputy prosecutor as saying:
“I think it’s very important for everyone that this trial has been seen through to the end. The truth of the case was reconstructed during an investigation by police and the Milano prosecutor’s office. The authors of the kidnapping of Abu Omar were all American – and the evidence proves this. As for the former officials of Sismi [the Italian intelligence service], the ruling shows that there was evidence to incriminate them.”
The write-thru then goes on to quote one of the few Italians that were convicted:
“While most of the Italians who were charged with aiding and abetting the kidnapping weren’t prosecuted due to laws protecting ‘state secrecy,’ a few were convicted, including an Italian intelligence agent, Colonel Luciano Seno, who is quoted as saying: ‘How can it be that they have been cleared of the abduction and I’ve been condemned? It’s madness.'”
Translated By Enrico Del Sero
November 5, 2009
Corriere Della Sera – Italy – Original Article (Italian)
MILAN: The former head of Sismi [Military Intelligence and Security Service] Niccolò Pollari and another former official of the same agency, Marco Mancini [former chief of operations], could not be called to account in the case of the abduction of Abu Omar [aka/ Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr] due to the issue of state secrecy. Pollari faced 13 years behind bars and Mancini 10. Instead, 23 CIA agents were convicted (almost all of the accused) – 22 of them to 5 years imprisonment, while Robert Seldon Lady [former CIA station chief] was sentenced to eight years. The United States was “disappointed” by the verdict, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.
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