Italy CIA "kidnap" trial adjourned until March 12

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Italy CIA "kidnap" trial adjourned until March 12
Wed Oct 31, 2007 10:59am EDT

By Ilaria Polleschi

MILAN (Reuters) - An Italian judge adjourned until
March 12 the trial of U.S. and Italian spies accused
of kidnapping a terrorism suspect in Milan, giving a
higher court more time to decide whether the case
breaks state secrecy rules.

The trial is the first anywhere over the U.S. practice
of "extraordinary rendition", whereby terrorism suspects
are secretly transferred to third countries.

Twenty-six Americans -- nearly all believed to be CIA
agents -- are being tried in absentia on charges of
kidnapping Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off
a Milan street and flying him to Egypt, where Nasr says
he was tortured under questioning.

-snip-

The trial, which has embarrassed Rome and Washington,
hit a roadblock shortly after it began in June when
the Italian government asked the country's highest
court on constitutional matters to throw out the case.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL3168405220071031