WASHINGTON: The US government has asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit brought by a former State Department official demanding diplomatic immunity against Italian charges that she helped kidnap a terrorism suspect.
Government lawyers argued in a legal filing late Monday that the courts have no authority to intervene in a foreign policy decision that must be left solely to the executive branch of government. They also argued the option of diplomatic immunity exists to benefit the nation applying it, not for individual government workers subjected to foreign legal action.
A judge s order that the United States assert immunity in the Italian courts would inject the court into matters of foreign policy, international diplomacy and treaty practice which are not the province of the judiciary, Justice Department lawyers wrote in a motion to dismiss the case brought by Sabrina De Sousa.
De Sousa is among 26 US government officials being tried in her absence in Milan, Italy, for the alleged kidnapping of Egyptian Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar.
It is the first trial in any country involving the CIA s extraordinary renditions program.
De Sousa s lawyer, Mark Zaid, said the US government is trying to abandon his client in the face of an overseas trial.
De Sousa, a 53-year-old native of India, resigned her job in February because of the State Department s refusal to give her immunity and 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 should leave the United States.
It is a disturbing shame that the US government s efforts in the Italian rendition case are to fight against one of its former diplomats rather than protect them from foreign prosecution, Zaid told The Associated Press. This litigation should give pause to anyone who desires to serve our country overseas, for they may find themselves abandoned when determined politically expedient.
Italian prosecutors allege that De Sousa 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 a brazen daylight foray on Feb. 17, 2003. Prosecutors say he was taken to his home country of Egypt, where he was held and allegedly tortured before eventually being released.
De Sousa says she was a foreign service officer in Milan and denies that she worked for the CIA. She says at the time of Nasr s capture she was vacationing at a ski resort nearly 130 miles away.
Last May, she sued in US District Court in Washington to try to force the State Department to give her immunity and government-funded legal counsel in Italy. So far, she has been represented by a court-appointed attorney whom she has had no contact with.
Last week, the Justice Department agreed to pay for an Italian lawyer for De Sousa, although the trial is now wrapping up with closing arguments expected to be Sept. 23
