Associated Press
ROME: The Italian government has signaled it will not press Washington for the extradition of 26 Americans indicted in the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan, according to remarks published Monday.
Milan prosecutors want the government to ask Washington to agree to their request for the extradition of the Americans. The former government of Silvio Berlusconi refused, and Premier Romano Prodi s center-left government has so far been non committal.
A decision could be announced Thursday, when Justice Minister Clemente Mastella briefs parliament, though Justice Ministry officials declined to say when a decision would be made.
Mastella suggested in an interview with an Italian newspaper the government would not seek the Americans extradition, saying that the friendship with Washington needed to be safeguarded.
It is an act of institutional caution, he said in an interview with Italian daily Il Messaggero. And in this decision – for which I already know I will be accused – I see no interference between politics and the judiciary, just the necessary caution.
Relations with the United States are fundamental. We are friends and we will remain friends, Mastella was quoted as saying.
The government has tried to avoid souring relations with Washington following the indictments last week of the 26 and, in a separate case, of a U.S. soldier who shot dead an Italian intelligence officer in Baghdad in 2005.
A big demonstration against the planned expansion of a U.S. base in northern Italy also fueled speculation of anti-U.S. sentiment in this country.
The decision on whether or not to forward an extradition request would normally be made by the Justice Ministry. But in this case, Mastella has said the decision will be made by the whole government because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The Americans have all left Italy, and it is unlikely that they will be turned over for prosecution, even if Italy decided to request their extradition.
The 26 – all but one CIA agents- are accused in the kidnapping of Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003.
Their trial opens in June. It will be the first criminal trial stemming from the CIA s extraordinary rendition program to secretly transfer terror suspects to third countries, where critics say they may have been tortured.
Five Italians, including the former chief of the military spy agency, have also been indicted in the case.
