CIA Agents on Trial

Judge Caterina Interlandi on Friday ordered the trial to start on June 8, though all of the Americans are believed to have left Italy.

Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, an Egyptian Muslim cleric, was abducted on a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003 and taken to Egypt. He was only freed by Egypt on Sunday and has since alleged that he was tortured while in detention.

The trial would be the biggest case against US intelligence agents staged in an allied country and threatens embarrassing new revelations over the US "extraordinary rendition" program in which terror suspects were seized in one country and taken to another.

It has been one of the most controversial tactics used in the US "war on terror" unleashed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Judge Interlandi's ruling came after the European Parliament on Wednesday condemned EU member states which had turned a "blind eye" to secret CIA "rendition" flights.

Also on Wednesday, the Swiss government gave the go-ahead for a criminal investigation into the use of Swiss airspace to fly Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, to a US base in Germany before he was flown on to Egypt.

CIA agent rejects court

A European arrest warrant has already been issued for the 26 US citizens, but Italian Justice Minister Clemente Mastella has yet to act on a request by Milan prosecutors to ask Washington for their extradition, saying late last month that he would decide the matter "soon."

Bob Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan and one of the defendants, said through his lawyer last month that he did not recognize the court. Another former CIA chief in Italy, Jeff Castelli, was also among the accused.

Thirty-five people have been charged in the case: 32 for kidnapping and three for complicity in the abduction.

The nine Italian defendants include Nicolo Pollari who was fired as head of the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI in November following a parliamentary inquiry into the kidnapping. His deputy and seven other Italians were also charged by Interlandi.

One journalist charged in the case has already negotiated a deal where a six-month prison term was reduced to a fine. An Italian policeman was sentenced to 21 months in prison, according to Ansa news agency.

Six months of interrogation

Nasr has alleged that he was beaten and humiliated during his detention of nearly four years.

In a document obtained by the Italian press, Nasr said he was on his way to his mosque in Milan when a red Fiat pulled up alongside him and the driver said he was a police officer.

"I gave him my residency permit," Nasr recalled. "A small white van stopped alongside. ... Two people seized me. They seemed to be Italian. When they threw me into the van, I tried to defend myself, and they punched me in the stomach and all over my body. They tied my hands and feet."

Nasr is presumed to have been taken to the US air base in Aviano, northern Italy.

"They tore up my clothes with knives and quickly put new clothes on me. They took off my blindfold to take my photograph. There were lots of special operations men. My head was wrapped with sticky paper with holes for the nose and mouth," he was quoted as saying.

Once in Cairo, he was held in a secret service locale, Nasr said.

"They made me walk with my feet tied together. I was falling, and they were laughing. Then there were electric charges, punches, slaps."

Nasr said his interrogation lasted six months, until Sept. 14, 2003.

In another cell, "cockroaches and rats ran over my body," he said. "When the guard came in I had to get on my knees or he would beat me with a baton that dealt electric shocks. ... I had only moldy bread to eat. ... Because of the beatings, I am deaf in one ear."

Rome criticizes judge

Nasr has already announced he plans to take legal action against former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to seek damages for allowing the kidnapping.

The Italian government has taken action before the country's constitutional court saying that the Milan judge overstepped her powers by ordering the monitoring of SISMI telephone conversations and the seizure of documents belonging to the agency.

If the court agrees, the trial could be delayed for new appeals, Italian media said.