WASHINGTON: The Justice Department has agreed to pay for a lawyer to help a former State Department official fight Italian charges that she participated in the alleged CIA kidnapping of a suspected terrorist in 2003.
The approval of her long-standing request came as her trial, in absentia, has nearly finished, and she did not get the diplomatic immunity she also seeks.
Sabrina De Sousa claims she was a foreign service officer working in Milan and was not involved in seizing Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. She is one of 26 US government officials and seven Italians charged with involvement in Nasr s alleged kidnapping. All the Americans are being prosecuted by Italy in absentia in the first trial in any country involving the CIA s extraordinary renditions program.
Italian prosecutors say De Sousa, a 53-year-old native of India, was a CIA officer working under diplomatic cover and was one of four main US officials responsible for coordinating Nasr s capture from a Milan street in daylight on Feb. 17, 2003.
Prosecutors say he was then transported in a van to Aviano Air Base in Italy, flown to Ramstein Air Base in southern Germany and then to his home country of Egypt. There he was held and allegedly tortured. He has since been released.
Of the 26 American defendants, De Sousa is only the second to receive US-financed legal aid. Her US attorney, Mark Zaid, says it appears that none has received diplomatic immunity.
Zaid said US officials have neither waived nor invoked immunity in the case, but have officially ignored the prosecution.
International law professor Michael P. Scharf of Case Western Reserve University said diplomats below the level of ambassador are given immunity only for official activities. The US government has never acknowledged any participation in Nasr s abduction.
De Sousa denies that she worked for the CIA and says that at the time of the incident she was vacationing at a ski resort nearly 130 miles away in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy. Last May, she sued in federal court in Washington to try to force the State Department to give her diplomatic immunity and government-funded legal counsel in Italy, which she said she had been asking since 2006 without a response from either former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or the current secretary, Hillary Clinton.
In a brief letter dated Wednesday, the Justice Department said it was granting her request to pay fees for the attorney of her choosing to represent her in the Italian trial.
Ms De Sousa should also be informed that this approval is limited to the provision of legal representation only and the Department of Justice cannot indemnify her for any fine or other monetary judgment that may be rendered against her in this matter, wrote Robert Hollis, director of the Justice Department s office of foreign litigation. This does not, of course, preclude another agency from providing indemnity based upon its authority to do so should that be necessary or appropriate.
The letter was sent to De Sousa s US attorney, Mark Zaid, who said it came too late in the proceedings. He said she would continue her lawsuit against the State Department in pursuit of immunity.
What is she supposed to do at this stage? Zaid said. It s a little bit coming late to the table. She was charged in 2006. She was asking for representation the entire way through.
The Italian trial continues Sept. 23, when closing arguments are expected to begin. A verdict is expected before Christmas.
All the American defendants are considered fugitives by Italy, and most, including De Sousa, are represented by court-appointed lawyers who have had no contact with the defendants. The State Department has refused to comment on the case in Italy or De Sousa s lawsuit.
It was not immediately clear what impact De Sousa s addition of her own lawyer would have at this late stage. De Sousa s court-appointed lawyer, Matilde Sansalone, told The Associated Press in an interview that no new evidence could be submitted, and a new lawyer would be limited to making the case in closing arguments based on the thousands of documents already compiled in the case.
Sansalone said she would cooperate with any lawyer De Sousa hired. Zaid said she had not yet decided who that would be.
The Defense Department also allowed Joseph Romano, who was the security chief at the Aviano Air Base, to retain his own attorney more than a year into the trial.
De Sousa resigned her job in February because of the department s refusal to give her immunity and because she was denied permission to travel to India to visit her family. She said she was told that she risks arrest and extradition to Italy if she leaves the United States.
-Associated Press reporter Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
