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Italy cuts sentences for 2 US fugitives in rendition case Italy cuts sentences for 2 Americans in rendition case
(about 1 hour later)
ROME — Italy’s president has shaved two years off the sentence of a former CIA base chief convicted in absentia in the 2003 extraordinary rendition abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect. ROME — In an act of clemency, Italy’s president has shaved two years off the sentence of a former CIA base chief convicted in absentia in the 2003 extraordinary rendition abduction of an Egyptian terror suspect.
With the decree, announced Wednesday night by the presidential palace, President Sergio Mattarella reduced to seven from nine years Robert Seldon Lady’s sentence. Mattarella also wiped out the three-year sentence handed down by a Milan court to another U.S. defendant convicted in absentia, Betnie Medero. With the decree, announced Wednesday night by the presidential palace, President Sergio Mattarella reduced Robert Seldon Lady’s sentence to seven years from nine. Mattarella also wiped out the entire penalty — three years — faced by another American convicted in the case, Betnie Medero. The palace statement noted that “neither of the two is currently in Italy.”
The palace said Italy’s head of state above all took into consideration U.S. President Barack Obama’s ending the practice of extraordinary renditions, which Italy and the European Union consider “incompatible with the fundamental principles of a State of law.” They are among 26 Americans convicted in absentia in the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street.
In all, 26 Americans were convicted in absentia in the Muslim cleric’s kidnapping in Milan. The palace said Italy’s head of state above all took into consideration President Barack Obama’s ending the practice of extraordinary renditions, which Italy and the European Union consider “incompatible with the fundamental principles of a State of law.”
Commenting on the decision, Gauri van Gulik of Amnesty International said in a statement Thursday that “the right thing to do would be to insist on extraditing them to Italy.”
Italy’s justice ministry has never responded to Italian prosecutors’ requests for extradition.
The practice of extraordinary rendition was part of the anti-terror strategy under the Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In 2013, Mattarella’s predecessor also cited Obama’s decision to end extraordinary rendition when he pardoned a U.S. Air Force colonel, the only military defendant among the Americans in the case. Giorgio Napolitano said pardoned Joseph Romano in hopes of resolving a situation “considered by the United States to be without precedent because of the aspect of convicting a U.S. military officer of NATO for deeds committed on Italian soil.”
Romano was security chief at Italy’s Aviano air base where the cleric was taken before being flown out of the country and eventually to Egypt.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.