By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press Writer
MILAN (AP) - The kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric damaged the fight against terrorism, prosecutors said Wednesday during closing arguments in the trial of 26 Americans and seven Italians charged with orchestrating a CIA-led abduction.
The arguments by prosecutor Armando Spataro signaled the final phase of the first trial in any country involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. Prosecutors allege that the 26 Americans were mostly CIA agents who worked with Italian intelligence to organize the kidnapping of Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street in February 2003.
"The kidnapping of Imam Abu Omar on Feb. 17, 2003 damaged the fight against terrorism by offering to the same terrorists an excuse to give sermons that gave the impression that ours is not a real democracy but a so-called democracy," Spataro said.
Two protesters broke into the trial at the end of the morning session demanding "justice for Abu Omar." A handful of others outside the courthouse said they were prevented from entering the public trial, with scores of riot police blocking the entrance to the courthouse.
Spataro gave a detailed rendering of the evidence against the American defendants, while the case against the Italians will be laid out next week. The closing arguments will conclude with the sentence he wants for each defendant. A verdict is expected by year's end.
Prosecutors say Nasr, a suspected terrorist, was driven from Milan to Aviano Air Base in Italy, flown to Ramstein Air Base in southern Germany and then to Egypt, where he was allegedly tortured. Nasr has been released but remains in Egypt and has not testified at the trial.
The case is the first to scrutinize so-called extraordinary renditions, under which the CIA transferred terrorism suspects to third countries for interrogation. Human rights advocates charge that renditions were the agency's way to outsource the torture of prisoners to countries where torture was practiced.
The CIA has declined to comment on the Italian case, and all the Americans are being tried in absentia and are considered fugitives.
The Italian government has denied any involvement, and all defendants, or their lawyers, have denied the charges.
Cesare Bulgheroni, a lawyer hired to represent Air Force Col. Joseph Romano, who was head of security at Aviano at the time, filed a U.S. Department of Defense request for the Italian court to transfer the case to a U.S. military court since the alleged actions happened while he was carrying out his duties. The judge rejected the motion.
Spataro called the request "unbelievable and a little bizarre," noting that it came 2 1/2 years after the trial began.
U.S. defendant Sabrina De Sousa also has hired a lawyer to represent her as the case draws to a close. The lawyer, Dario Bolognesi, said during a break that the case against his client relies on evidence that he will argue has been excluded from the proceedings by a constitutional court ruling that said certain evidence was classified.
De Sousa says she was a foreign service officer in Milan and denies she worked for the CIA.
The rest of the American defendants are represented by court-appointed lawyers, who have had no contact with their clients.
In his closing arguments, the prosecutor said the Egyptian had been under investigation on suspicion of helping potential suicide bombers travel from Europe to Afghanistan and Iraq when he was taken from Italy. It was precisely because of that role, Spataro argued, that U.S. authorities wanted to interrogate him, noting the kidnapping happened after the U.S. military engagement in Afghanistan had started, and before U.S. forces entered Iraq.
He said the CIA and Italian intelligence had planted misinformation early in the investigation saying the Egyptian had left Italy and returned voluntarily to the Balkans, where he had been living before being granted political asylum in Italy.
But he said evidence refutes attempts to portray Nasr's disappearance as voluntary, including an account by a witness who saw his abduction; wiretaps of phone calls between Nasr and his wife after his release from an Egyptian prison in 2004; records of cell-phone use that helped investigators identify the American suspects; and evidence of the aircraft used to transport Nasr to Germany and onward to Egypt.
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