Two members of the Italian military intelligence service SISMI were arrested on Wednesday in connection with a probe into the alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian Muslim cleric in Milan in 2003.
Arrest warrants were also issued for four American nationals - three CIA members and an official at the US air base at Aviano in northern Italy. The Italians arrested were Marco Mancini, a SISMI director who has been on sick leave for more than a year, and General Gustavo Pignero, an expert on domestic terrorism who was Mancini's superior in 2003.
Mancini, who was arrested at his home near Ravenna in northeast Italy, is accused of helping the CIA to abduct the cleric, a terrorist suspect. Pignero was not taken to jail for health reasons and instead was placed under house arrest.
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was the imam of Milan's main mosque. He disappeared mysteriously from the northern city on February 17, 2003. Investigating prosecutors in Milan say Nasr was snatched
off the streets by a team of CIA operatives who flew him to two US military bases including Aviano and then on to Egypt
where he was allegedly tortured by Egyptian security agents.
The 43-year-old cleric was briefly released in 2004, when he told his family he had been tortured. Nasr's lawyer Montasser el Zeyat told ANSA on Wednesday that his client had also been released three weeks ago but was re-arrested on Monday by the Egyptian authorities who said he was "a threat to state security".
The lawyer said his client was attempting to sue the previous Italian government headed by Silvio Berlusconi and the CIA over his abduction and was seeking damages of 10 million euros. At the time of his abduction, Omar, an Egyptian refugee, was being probed by Milan investigators for suspected links to international terrorism.
Last November, the Milan prosecutors requested the extradition from the US of 22 CIA agents accused of abducting
Nasr. It was the first time that criminal charges were filed abroad against US operatives for their role in an anti-terrorism mission.
Up until Wednesday's arrests, no Italian officials had been involved in the case. The Berlusconi-led government repeatedly denied authorising or having any role in the alleged CIA operation. It also denied any SISMI involvement.
The extradition requests for the CIA agents were unsuccessful, with then justice minister Roberto Castelli refusing to pass them on to the US Justice Department. The case comes amid an international furore over allegations that the CIA has been carrying out covert operations in Europe with the possible knowledge or consent of local governments.
The CIA has been accused of 'extraordinary rendition', the practice of transporting suspects to other countries for interrogation, and using European airports for refuelling stops during these secret transfers. A Council of Europe investigator reported last month that the Nasr abduction was one in a "global spider's web" of such flights.
The investigator, Dick Marty, also said that it was "unlikely that the Italian authorities were not aware of this large-scale CIA operation". The CIA is accused of running secret prisons in Eastern Europe, where aggressive interrogation techniques outlawed in the US can be used, and sending prisoners to countries like Egypt and Syria where torture is commonplace.
The US government has admitted secret rendition practices but denies using torture or handing suspects over to countries that do so.
