A fresh row has broken out in a landmark case of alleged 'extraordinary rendition' of a Muslim cleric from Milan four years ago.
Milan prosecutors on Wednesday rejected government accusations that they knowingly broke state secrecy laws and damaged relations between Italian and foreign intelligence agencies in their probe into the abduction.
"We will prove that our actions were absolutely correct," said prosecutors Armando Spataro and Ferdinando Pomarici, voicing confidence that they will convince the Constitutional Court that they did not overstep their bounds.
The prosecutors say the abduction of cleric Abu Omar was carried out by the CIA with the help of Italian military intelligence SISMI.
Omar was recently released from an Egyptian jail where he says he was raped and tortured.
Excerpts of the government's complaint to the Constitutional Court, presented last month, were published in the Corriere della Sera daily Wednesday.
It accuses the prosecutors of "causing considerable damage to the image of the Italian government, especially in the highly delicate and vital area of collaboration between States in the anti-terrorism field".
In making public their case, the prosecutors allegedly exposed the Italian intelligence service to the risk of "information ostracism" by fellow agencies, the government claims.
The Court is due to decide whether to assess the opposing arguments on April 18. The mere act of ruling that the issue is subject to Constitutional considerations could derail the Milan trial, which is scheduled to open on June 8.
The trial was expected to be the first judicial examination of America's controversial rendition policy, the abduction of terrorism suspects in one country in order to have them interrogated in another.
But prosecutors in several other European countries are now probing the CIA flights.
The European Parliament has rapped three countries including Italy for allowing the US to fly terror suspects to foreign locations where they are believed to have been tortured.
The US admits renditions but denies torture.
The US State Department described the EU report as "unfair, inaccurate and distorted".
The Milan prosecutors have been criticised by Justice Minister Clemente Mastella - who has been sitting on extradition requests for the CIA operatives - as well as most of the opposition led by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi.
But a leftist party in Prodi's coalition, Communist Refoundation, said Wednesday that state lawyers were wrong to slam an investigation into a "serious crime" it said violated Italian sovereignty.
CIA, SISMI ACCUSED IN CASE.
in February a Milan judge ordered 26 CIA agents and six members of SISMI to stand trial for Abu Omar's kidnapping.
Egyptian refugee Abu Omar, whose real name is Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, was the imam of Milan's main mosque when he disappeared from the northern city on February 17, 2003.
The suspected CIA agents include the former CIA station chiefs in Italy and Milan, Jeff Castelli and Robert Seldon Lady. Like the others, they have left Italy and will be tried in absentia if the case goes ahead.
The Italian defendants include former SISMI head of Niccolo' Pollari and his former No.2 Marco Mancini.
Pollari has said he is unable to defend himself because he is bound by secrecy laws. His case will be boosted, experts say, if the Constitutional Court finds that the affair should have fallen under national security rules.
Omar was released from an Egyptian prison on February 18 and he let it be known that he wants to return to Italy.
The cleric's lawyer said his client also wants to sue former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi - in power when he was abducted - for 10 million euros and Italian and US intelligence agencies for 20 million euros.
The Italian foreign ministry has declined to comment on the possibility of Omar being able to return to Italy.
If he returns, he will face charges filed by the Milan prosecutors of being linked to terror groups.
