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00giovedì 11 gennaio 2007 00:10
FINANCIAL TIMES
Prodi and Berlusconi face grilling in 'rendition' trial
By Tony Barber in Rome
Published: January 10 2007 02:00
Romano Prodi and Silvio Berlusconi, the present and former Italian prime ministers, were warned yesterday they could be called to testify in a sensitive case involving alleged US-Italian co-operation in kidnapping a radical Egyptian imam.
A lawyer for Nicolò Pollari, the former head of Italy's military intelligence service, whom prosecutors suspect of assisting the abduction, said that he intended to defend his client by summoning Mr Prodi and Mr Berlusconi as witnesses.
Prosecutors want to put on trial Mr Pollari, who was removed from his post last November, and 34 others, including 25 Americans alleged to have worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and to have kidnapped Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr in Milan in February 2003.
If a Milan judge gives the green light, it will be the first criminal prosecution of people said to be involved in the CIA's controversial "rendition" programme, or abduction of terrorist suspects for interrogation outside their own countries.
Equally important, the case could throw light on the degree to which the government of Italy, and possibly other European countries, may have quietly co-operated with the US, a Nato ally, despite official denials of involvement.
Prosecutors say the imam, also known as Abu Omar, was kidnapped on a Milan street, bundled into a van, whisked to a US airbase at Aviano in northern Italy, flown to another US base in Germany and taken to Egypt for interrogation.
The abduction took place one month before the US-led invasion of Iraq, an operation backed by Mr Berlusconi, who was then prime minister. He prided himself on being a particularly close ally of George W. Bush, the US president.
Some ministers in Mr Prodi's government, which took office in May, say it seems inconceivable that the CIA would have conducted a kidnapping in Italy without some prior understanding with the Italians.
Moreover, ministers have been struck by how little effort the alleged CIA agents made to conceal their activities at the time of the kidnapping, with telephone calls and hotel stays easily traceable by the police.
Mr Pollari has denied responsibility for the kidnapping, but has said that Italian secrecy laws prevent him from saying all he knows about the affair.
Even if the case goes to trial, it is improbable that any of the US suspects will voluntarily appear in court. Yesterday Robert Seldon Lady, a former CIA station chief in Milan named in the prosecutors' indictment request, said through his lawyer that he did not intend to co-operate with the proceedings.
"My client contends that the solution to this case should be political and not judicial," said Daria Pesce, his lawyer.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007