By Mark Memmott
A judge in Italy has convicted 23 Americans who were tried in absentia for the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric from a Milan street during a CIA extraordinary rendition, the Associated Press reports. Three Americans were acquitted.
Earlier, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reported that all but one of the defendants had been identified as CIA agents.
She also reported that seven Italian spy agents were on trial. The AP says five of the Italians were acquitted "because Italy withheld evidence, contending it was classified information." The trial has been going on for three years.
The cleric, reports Sylvia, is known as Abu Omar. He says he was blindfolded, taken to Egypt and tortured.
According to the AP, "22 of the convicted Americans were immediately sentenced to five years in jail. ... The other convicted American, Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady, was given the stiffest sentence, eight years in prison."
categories: Foreign News
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