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Abu Omar case
The Abu Omar case was the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. The case became one of the best-documented instances of extraordinary rendition carried out in a joint operation by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Italian Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) during the war on terror declared by the George W. Bush administration.
Nasr was abducted on February 17, 2003, in Milan by agents of SISMI and the CIA, and transported to Aviano Air Base, from which he was flown to Egypt. There he was imprisoned for four years without charges, secluded, interrogated, and, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald, tortured by the Mubarak regime.
The CIA operation interrupted an Italian surveillance program investigating Nasr's alleged participation in Islamist organizations. Despite the disruption, Abu Omar was indicted on international terrorism charges in Italy in 2005. The Italian government initially denied any role in the abduction, though the Italian press described a "CIA–SISMI concerted operation." Nasr was released by an Egyptian court in February 2007, which ruled his detention "unfounded."
Italian prosecutors Armando Spataro and Ferdinando Pomarici indicted 26 CIA agents, including Rome station chief Jeffrey W. Castelli and Milan chief of base Robert Seldon Lady, as well as SISMI director General Nicolò Pollari, his deputy Marco Mancini, and station chiefs Raffaele Ditroia, Luciano Di Gregori, and Giuseppe Ciorra. Prosecutors requested extradition of the indicted Americans through Italy's Ministry of Justice, then headed by Roberto Castelli, who declined to forward the request to Washington.
The case caused controversy inside the CIA after it became public in 2005. CIA director Porter J. Goss ordered the agency's inspector general to review the operation, but Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then head of the National Clandestine Service, halted that review and said the service would investigate itself. In 2009, Robert Seldon Lady said, "I'm not guilty. I'm only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors." CIA officer Sabrina De Sousa, sentenced to five years, said the United States "broke the law ... and we are paying for the mistakes right now."
On February 12, 2013, Milan's Court of Appeal sentenced former SISMI director Pollari, his deputy Mancini, former Rome CIA station chief Castelli, and two other CIA employees to up to ten years in prison. Pollari appealed to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation; on February 24, 2014, following a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Italy on the use of secret evidence, the court acquitted Pollari and Mancini.
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (Arabic: حسن مصطفى أسامة نصر, Ḥassan Muṣṭafā Usāmah Naṣr; born March 18, 1963), known as Abu Omar, is an Egyptian cleric. In 2003 he was living in Milan, from where he was kidnapped and later tortured in Egypt. The case led to Italian criminal convictions, in absentia, of 22 CIA operatives, a U.S. Air Force colonel, two Italian accomplices, and Nasr himself.
Nasr belonged to al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an organization once dedicated to overthrowing the Egyptian government that renounced violence following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état. The group was tied to the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat and a 1990s terrorist campaign culminating in the November 1997 Luxor massacre, leading the United States and European Union to designate it a terrorist organization. After Egypt outlawed the group, Nasr sought asylum in Italy, having earlier fought in the Bosnian War during the 1990s. On February 11, 2007, his lawyer Montasser el-Zayat confirmed that Nasr had been released and reunited with his family, after an Egyptian court found his four-year detention "unfounded."
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Abu Omar case
The Abu Omar case was the abduction and transfer to Egypt of the imam of Milan Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. The case became one of the best-documented instances of extraordinary rendition carried out in a joint operation by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Italian Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) during the war on terror declared by the George W. Bush administration.
Nasr was abducted on February 17, 2003, in Milan by agents of SISMI and the CIA, and transported to Aviano Air Base, from which he was flown to Egypt. There he was imprisoned for four years without charges, secluded, interrogated, and, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald, tortured by the Mubarak regime.
The CIA operation interrupted an Italian surveillance program investigating Nasr's alleged participation in Islamist organizations. Despite the disruption, Abu Omar was indicted on international terrorism charges in Italy in 2005. The Italian government initially denied any role in the abduction, though the Italian press described a "CIA–SISMI concerted operation." Nasr was released by an Egyptian court in February 2007, which ruled his detention "unfounded."
Italian prosecutors Armando Spataro and Ferdinando Pomarici indicted 26 CIA agents, including Rome station chief Jeffrey W. Castelli and Milan chief of base Robert Seldon Lady, as well as SISMI director General Nicolò Pollari, his deputy Marco Mancini, and station chiefs Raffaele Ditroia, Luciano Di Gregori, and Giuseppe Ciorra. Prosecutors requested extradition of the indicted Americans through Italy's Ministry of Justice, then headed by Roberto Castelli, who declined to forward the request to Washington.
The case caused controversy inside the CIA after it became public in 2005. CIA director Porter J. Goss ordered the agency's inspector general to review the operation, but Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., then head of the National Clandestine Service, halted that review and said the service would investigate itself. In 2009, Robert Seldon Lady said, "I'm not guilty. I'm only responsible for carrying out orders that I received from my superiors." CIA officer Sabrina De Sousa, sentenced to five years, said the United States "broke the law ... and we are paying for the mistakes right now."
On February 12, 2013, Milan's Court of Appeal sentenced former SISMI director Pollari, his deputy Mancini, former Rome CIA station chief Castelli, and two other CIA employees to up to ten years in prison. Pollari appealed to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation; on February 24, 2014, following a ruling by the Constitutional Court of Italy on the use of secret evidence, the court acquitted Pollari and Mancini.
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (Arabic: حسن مصطفى أسامة نصر, Ḥassan Muṣṭafā Usāmah Naṣr; born March 18, 1963), known as Abu Omar, is an Egyptian cleric. In 2003 he was living in Milan, from where he was kidnapped and later tortured in Egypt. The case led to Italian criminal convictions, in absentia, of 22 CIA operatives, a U.S. Air Force colonel, two Italian accomplices, and Nasr himself.
Nasr belonged to al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, an organization once dedicated to overthrowing the Egyptian government that renounced violence following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état. The group was tied to the 1981 assassination of Anwar Sadat and a 1990s terrorist campaign culminating in the November 1997 Luxor massacre, leading the United States and European Union to designate it a terrorist organization. After Egypt outlawed the group, Nasr sought asylum in Italy, having earlier fought in the Bosnian War during the 1990s. On February 11, 2007, his lawyer Montasser el-Zayat confirmed that Nasr had been released and reunited with his family, after an Egyptian court found his four-year detention "unfounded."
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