ROME, 25 June 2005 — An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 CIA agents for allegedly helping to abduct an imam and fly him to Egypt as part of US anti-terrorism efforts, an Italian official familiar with the investigation said yesterday.
The agents are suspected in the seizure of an Egyptian-born imam identified as Abu Omar on the streets of Milan in February 2003, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The US Embassy in Rome declined to comment.
Reports in newspapers Corriere della Sera and Il Giorno said prosecutors believe the agents seized Omar as part of the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program through which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval.
Investigators were able to trace the agents through check-in details at Milan hotels and their use of Italian cell phones during the operation, the reports said. All the agents are American and three are women, Il Giorno said. The reports said another six agents are under investigation for helping prepare the operation.
They said that police had also received an eyewitness account from an Egyptian woman who heard Omar calling for help and saw him being bundled into a white van as he was walking from his house to a mosque.
The report said Omar was taken to Aviano, a joint US-Italian base north of Venice, and was flown from there to another US air base in Ramstein, Germany, before being taken in a second jet to Cairo.
A judge has also issued a separate arrest warrant for Omar, news agencies ANSA and Apcom said. In that warrant, Judge Guido Salvini claimed the seizure of Omar represented a violation of Italian sovereignty, Apcom reported.
Earlier this month Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro told The Associated Press that the prosecution was treating the disappearance of Omar as an abduction.
Omar was believed to have fought alongside militants in Afghanistan and Bosnia and prosecutors were seeking evidence against him before his disappearance, according to a report in La Repubblica newspaper last year, which cited intelligence officials.
