ROME — Italy’s former intelligence chief, Nicolo Pollari, told a Milan court yesterday that he’s being used as a scapegoat by prosecutors who accuse him of cooperating with an alleged kidnapping by America’s Central Intelligence Agency.

“He feels like a victim, he feels like a scapegoat,” Franco Coppi, a lawyer for the ex-spymaster, told the court. In a closed-door preliminary hearing, Mr. Pollari said he “opposed any illegal actions” that may have been committed when an Egyptian Islamic cleric was seized in Milan in 2003, according to Mr. Coppi.

Prosecutors say CIA and Italian operatives kidnapped Egyptian cleric Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr in February 2003 and flew him to Egypt where he was tortured during questioning about alleged terrorist links. He hasn’t been tried and is still in custody, prosecutors say. Mr. Pollari denies any wrongdoing.

Mr. Pollari, who is the former head of Italy’s military intelligence unit, Sismi, is one of six Italians accused of helping 26 Americans, 25 of them alleged CIA operatives.

Mr. Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, was walking near his local mosque in February 2003 when at least two Italian-speaking men bundled him into a van, according to court documents.

The cleric was under observation by Italian police for suspected terrorist activities when he was seized, prosecutors said. If he hadn’t been kidnapped, he probably would have been charged for recruiting terrorists along with five other suspects in a case that closed in September, the prosecutor said. The defendants in that trial were sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.