On November 4, 2009, an Italian judge convicted 23 CIA agents and two Italian agents over their role in the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric. Milan judge Oscar Magi sentenced former Milan CIA station chief Bob Seldon Lady to 8 years and 22 other agents to 5 years in prison for their role in the abduction of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Also convicted was Air Force Colonel Joseph Romano who was responsible for the CIA kidnapping team’s flight to Egypt from a U.S. air base in Italy.

Nasr was allegedly abducted from a street in the northern Italian city of Milan and flown to Egypt where he was tortured. He was released in February, 2007, and apparently was an innocent man, never charged.

Subsequent Italian governments, including the current conservative government led by Silvio Berlusconi, have refused or ignored prosecutors’ requests to extradite the American defendants to stand trial in Italy. Nasr’s wife Ghali Nabila last month claimed 5 million euros in compensation, while lawyers acting for Nasr sought 10 million euros in compensation for the distress he and his family suffered. Robert Lady’s house in Asti has been awarded to Omar.

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