Italy: Judge rules CIA abduction trial should proceed

In the case of Abu Omar, an Egyptian cleric allegedly abducted by the CIA in Milan in February 2003, a judge rejected the Government’s claim that the prosecutor did not have the authority to charge Italian intelligence officers and CIA agents. The trial will proceed in early June in the absence of the CIA agents since the US refused to extradite them. The Italian Government lodged a complaint before the Constitutional Court alleging a conflict between the acquisition and use of evidence by the Milan prosecutor’s office in the case and the preservation of a “secret of state”.