STRASBOURG: The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Italy over the 2003 kidnapping by the CIA of an Egyptian imam who had been granted political asylum by Italian authorities.
Imam Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, better known as Abu Omar, was “abducted” while walking down a street in Milan and taken to a US air force base in Germany and then to Egypt, it said, finding Italy guilty of numerous human rights violations over the case.
These include violating a ban on torture and inhuman or degrading treatment under the European Convention on Human Rights.
“The Court found it established that the Italian authorities were aware that the applicant had been a victim of an extraordinary rendition operation which had begun with his abduction in Italy and had continued with his transfer abroad,” it said.
The court also ruled that “the legitimate principle of ‘state secrecy’ had clearly been applied by the Italian executive in order to ensure that those responsible did not have to answer for their actions.