Suspected CIA Agents Skp Italian Trial
Phil Steward, Reuters
The government of Prime Minister Romano Prodi says the prosecution broke state secrecy rules. Prosecutors have objected to a suspension, which they said would allow Prodi to block any trial he found politically uncomfortable.
The Egyptian cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was on Washington's list of terror suspects. He said he was tortured while under interrogation in Egypt.
"I would have liked this trial to show the whole world the truth about the world's number one terrorist -- George W. Bush -- and the crusader American administration," Nasr told Al Jazeera television from Egypt. But he said he had low expectations of the trial because "only Westerners have rights, but Arabs and Muslims have no rights to life."
The cleric, who was freed from jail in February but had his passport confiscated, said Egypt would not let him testify in Milan.
Nasr was reportedly taken to Cairo on a private jet owned by Boston Red Sox partner Phillip H. Morse. Morse, who leased the jet to the CIA when he was not using it, is one of more than 100 potential prosecution witnesses in the Milan case, the BBC and Italian news agencies reported.
Washington has said it will reject any request by Italy to extradite the accused.