[Peace-discuss] Italian President Pardons CIA Kidnappers

[David Johnson]

Italian President Pardons CIA Kidnappers

 

Italy's president bowed to U.S. pressure by pardoning two CIA agents found
guilty of abducting a Muslim cleric.

 

Italy pardoned two former CIA agents on Wednesday convicted of a kidnapping
in Italy that led to the rendition and alleged torture of an Egyptian man.

 

The CIA's former Milanese station chief Robert Seldon Lady and another U.S.
national, Bernie Medero, were pardoned by President Sergio Mattarella for
their role in the 2003 kidnapping.

 

More than 20 CIA agents were convicted in absentia, with Lady facing the
longest prison term of nine years.

 

None of the agents ever served any time behind bars, though Lady and others
risked arrest under international warrants if they traveled to Europe. Lady
himself was temporarily detained in Panama in 2013 over the conviction, but
fled the country before Italian authorities could process an extradition
request.

 

RELATED: CIA Torture Report: Where Are the Children?    

 

The presidential pardon means Medero can now travel freely to Europe, though
an Italian official told Reuters that Lady could still risk arrest in the
European Union as his pardon only reduced his sentence from nine years to
just two..

 

The convictions against Lady, Medero and others in Italy were the first of
their kind against CIA agents involved in Washington's extraordinary
rendition program. The controversial program saw hundreds of suspected
militants kidnapped by the CIA, transported to secretive prison sites and
tortured. Many of the victims had no ties to extremist groups and the
program was widely condemned by human rights groups.

 

Rendition was officially shelved in 2008.

 

The CIA agents in Italy were found guilty of kidnapping Egyptian imam Osama
Mustafa Hassan Nasr, better known as Abu Omar.

 

Abu Omar was abducted by the CIA in 2003, and later held in a site in Egypt.
The imam has alleged he was tortured during his seven months in captivity. 

 

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