Reuters
CAIRO/ROME: A Muslim cleric freed from a prison in Egypt four years after being grabbed in Milan in a suspected CIA kidnapping wants to sue former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi for damages, his lawyer said on Monday. Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, has alleged that Egyptian guards tortured him with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse. He believes, and I agree with him, that if it were not for Berlusconi the kidnapping operation would not have happened. He was the prime minister, and he s the one who gave the green light, Nasr s lawyer, Montasser Al-Zayat, told Reuters. Berlusconi has repeatedly denied knowledge of any operation to kidnap Nasr but documents related to the case are classified. Nasr said on Monday, a day after his release, that the ordeal wrecked his life and Zayat renewed plans to seek 10 million euros ($13 million) in damages. Any lawsuit would have to be carried out without Nasr, as the Egyptian-born imam said he had no plans to return to Italy to give evidence – even to a judge considering indicting 26 Americans on kidnapping charges. I ve been reduced to a wreck of a human being, Nasr told Italy s ANSA news agency by telephone. I cannot speak. I cannot leave the country. I don t want to go to prison again.
A judge has issued an arrest warrant for Nasr in Italy arising from an investigation into his possible links to terrorist activities, including recruiting combatants for Iraq. That investigation remains inconclusive, but prosecutors say they have enough evidence to convict the Americans, including the former CIA chief in Italy, for kidnapping the imam in Milan in February 2003. Prosecutors also want to try six Italians, including the former head of military intelligence, for helping the CIA.
Prime Minister Romano Prodi told an Indian newspaper that his government opposed renditions, one of the most controversial aspects of US President George W. Bush s war on terrorism . Prodi confirmed he had kept some documents on the case classified as he was bound by a law protecting state secrets. My government is against any rendition but the case that you refer to concerns state secrets, Prodi told the Hindu. According to the rules, these files cannot be made public and I have reconfirmed that. There are still discussions on this subject, but for the moment I have not changed the policy of my predecessor (Berlusconi), he said in comments at the weekend. I am not covering up anything. It is a case of continuity, Prodi said. Zayat told Reuters an Egyptian court had ordered Nasr s release. After being abducted and flown to Egypt in 2003, Nasr was charged with belonging to an illegal organisation. He was briefly released in 2004 when the charges were dropped but was then detained without charge under emergency laws. His lawyer had said he believed Nasr was re-arrested after ignoring orders to remain silent about the kidnapping. He had called his wife and friends in Italy, recounting details of the abduction which were recorded in police wiretaps and helped Milan prosecutors reconstruct the kidnapping.
