Italian President Pardons Chief CIA Rendition Convicts

nsnbc : Italian President Sergio Mattarella has pardoned the former CIA Station Chief in Rome Robert Seldon Lady and others who were convicted for the kidnapping of Egyptian Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr in Milan, and his extraordinary rendition to Egypt. 

President Sergio Mattarella_Italy_2015President Sergio Mattarella’s pardon includes U.S. citizens, with CIA Station Chief Robert Seldon Lady and Bentie Medero who were among 26 sentenced for snatching Nasr from the streets of Milan by dragging him into a car, for thereafter, illegally, rendering him to Egypt, aware that Nasr would be subject to torture there.

None of the 26 were ever detained in Italy or appeared before an Italian court during their trial. They have, however, theoretically risked arrest if or when they traveled to a European Union member State.

The sentencing of the 26 caused superficial political tensions between Rome and Washington, even though no Italian administration ever made a crucial “issue” out of the CIA’s illegal activities in Italy and Washington’s failure to extradite the accused – and later convicted operatives.

The statement issued by President Matterella’s office over the conditions of his presidential pardon is largely a continuum of this policy. The presidential office stated that the most junior U.S. official caught up in the affair, was effectively having her six-year prison term wiped clean from the slate.

CIA Station Chief Robert Seldon Lady received a nine-year term. His term would be cut to seven years, the statement said. This is the same term given to former CIA Rome station chief Jeffrey Castelli in the case. Non one else of the 26 who were involved in the extraordinary rendition were pardoned.

The trial against the 26 was the first trial against participants in the CIA’s illegal extraordinary rendition program that was officially sanctioned by the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. Robert Seldon Lady attempted to justify the illegal kidnapping and the rendering of Nasr for torture in Egypt, claiming that Nasr was in the process of planning “an attack” and that his rendition to Egypt led to “further renditions in other countries”.

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, a.k.a. Abu Omar claimed that he was tortured during the seven months he was held captive in an Egyptian prison. The pardon poses serious questions about the possibility to force the United States to adhere to international and humanitarian law. It also poses question of Italy’s possibility to act as a sovereign State, considering the Charter of the UN still designates Italy, Germany and Japan as enemy States to the UN.

Mattarella justified the pardon of the chief operatives of the CIA’s Station in Rome, saying that he made the decision because the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama had halted the extraordinary rendition program. Ironically, the lower-ranking operatives still face possible consequences, not to mention the fact that the “alleged” abolishing of the extraordinary rendition program was substituted by presidential “kill lists”.

CH/L – nsnbc 24.12.2015

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2015/12/24/italian-president-pardons-cia-rendition-convicts/

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