Italy to try CIA Keystone Kidnappers in absentia.

A trial has the potential to publicly air details about the renditions

_ moving terrorism suspects from country to country without public

legal proceedings.

It also could embarrass the intelligence community over the handling

of a highly secret operation that got the attention of prosecutors.

Italian prosecutors say Nasr _ suspected of recruiting fighters for

radical Islamic causes but who had not been charged with any crime at

the time of his disappearance _ was taken to U.S. bases in Italy and

Germany before being transferred to Egypt, where he was imprisoned for

four years.

Nasr, who was released Feb. 11, said he was tortured.

Nasr's lawyer traveled from Cairo to attending the opening

proceedings; prosecutors have listed Nasr on their list of more than

120 witnesses.

Lawyers for a former Italian intelligence chief also under indictment

have included former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who was in office at

the time of Nasr's disappearance, and Premier Romano Prodi on their

witness list, according to lawyers involved in the case.

The same request was denied by a different judge during the

preliminary hearing phase.

The 26 Americans have left Italy, and a senior U.S. official has said

they would not be turned over for prosecution even if Rome requests

it.

Prodi's government has so far not made a decision.

The trial's opening comes as Bush arrives for meetings Saturday with

the pope and Italy's premier and president.

Relations between Rome and Washington also have been strained by the

trial of a U.S. soldier accused of killing an Italian intelligence

officer in Baghdad in 2005 as well as Italy's withdrawal of troops

from Iraq and reluctance to send additional soldiers to Afghanistan.

From The Associated Press, 6/7/07:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/07/AR2007060700573.html

Trial Opens Involving CIA Rendition

By COLLEEN BARRY

The Associated Press

Thursday, June 7, 2007; 8:06 AM

MILAN, Italy --

The first trial involving the CIA's extraordinary renditions program

opens Friday in the absence of all 26 American defendants accused of

kidnapping an Egyptian terrorist suspect.

The trial, which has been an irritant in the historically robust

U.S.-Italy relationship and coincides with the arrival in Rome of

President Bush, was expected to ground to a halt before taking off.

The government has asked Italy's highest court to throw out

indictments against 26 Americans _ all but one of them believed to be

CIA agents _ accused of abducting Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also

known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003.

The Constitutional Court was expected to consider that and a similar

appeal in the fall, and participants in the trial said they expect

defense requests to postpone the trial until after the high court

rules.

___________________________________________________

Harry