Italy Arrests Spies for Delivering Imam Into Hands of CIA
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
ROME – Two Italian spy chiefs were arrested yesterday on suspicion of helping the CIA to snatch an imam in Milan and fly him out of the country.
The head of counterespionage at the military intelligence agency Sismi, Marco Mancini, and the agency’s chief official in the north of the country, Gustavo Pignero, were placed under investigation to examine whether they will face kidnapping charges.
They are suspected of assisting American agents three years ago when they abducted Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was alleged to have links to terrorism.
The government of the former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, repeatedly denied that the Italian state had any involvement in the CIA “rendition” of the terrorist suspect.
But the judiciary has been flexing its muscles since Mr.Berlusconi’s defeat in elections in April, and emboldened magistrates have launched a series of high-profile cases.
Prosecutors in Milan, who ordered the arrests, also issued warrants for four Americans for their alleged role in smuggling Mr. Nasr out of Italy in 2003. They said he was bundled into a van, taken to the Aviano air base, flown to Germany, and then on to his native Egypt.
Mr. Nasr has claimed that he was tortured during his interrogation.
