Thursday, November 05, 2009

Guilty!

Busy day, not much time to blog. But Spot did want to pass this along:

Judgment in Milan

An Italian court hearing criminal charges against 26 American officials and a smaller group of Italians arising out of a CIA extraordinary rendition has ruled today. The case relates to the CIA’s snatching of a Muslim cleric known as Abu Omar off the streets of Milan in 2003. He was whisked off to Egypt, where he was tortured before being released. Italian prosecutors noted that the American action botched a prosecution they had prepared against Abu Omar for participation in a terrorist conspiracy. Here’s a summary of the court’s decision from Reuters: [the Scott Horton post continues]

The guilty judgments were made “in absentia,” due to the, um, absence of the defendants. The good news for the defendants is that Italy doesn’t practice extraordinary rendition. The United States is unlikely to extradite them, either, so as long at these defendants never leave the country for the rest of their natural lives, they should be okay.

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