Rome, October 08: A lawyer representing a Milan-based Muslim preacher who was allegedly snatched by CIA agents and tortured in Egypt has demanded 10 million euros (14 million dollars) in damages, the ANSA news agency reported on Wednesday.
Defence lawyer Carmleo Scambia told the court that Egyptian imam Abu Omar should be awarded the money because he had suffered “humilations that would be unimaginable for most human beings” when he was transferred to a high-security prison outside the Egyptian capital of Cairo.
Abu Omar said after his release he had been regularly beaten and tortured while in custody.
He was allegedly abducted while walking to his mosque in February 2003 in what is thought to be one of scores of covert kidnappings around the world since the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The kidnappings were allegedly part of the US’s so-called extraordinary rendition programme in which victims say they were forcibly taken to locations for interrogation, and in some cases torture.
Luca Bauccio, representing the cleric’s wife and children, said they should receive five million euros for the “immense pain” they endured during Omar’s incarceration.
On September 30, prosecutor Armando Spataro said he would be seeking a 13-year jail term for former CIA chief Jeff Castelli and the former head of Italian military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, for their alleged role in Omar’s kidnapping.
Spataro also argued that two former Italy-based CIA officials, Robert Lady and Sabrina De Sousa, should serve 12 years, while the officers believed to have been directly involved in seizing Omar should spend 11 years behind bars.
The Italian prosecutor said the jail terms were justified because of “the brutal and barbaric methods” used in questioning Omar.
Omar’s trial, which opened in June 2007, is the first in Europe on the secret transfer of terror suspects carried out by the CIA in the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Judges are expected to give their final ruling by the end of the year.
—Agencies