Italian judge suspends CIA trial

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

MILAN, Italy - An Italian judge on Monday suspended the first trial involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program until the country's highest court can rule on the case.

The Italian government has asked the Constitutional Court to throw out the indictments against the 26 American defendants, all but one identified by prosecutors as CIA agents. They are accused of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003.

In an argument that would effectively scuttle the case, state lawyers have said that the judge who issued the indictments unlawfully relied on state secrets to justify the charges.

The 26 Americans have left Italy, and a senior U.S. official has said they would not be turned over for prosecution even if Rome requests it. The government has not yet responded to prosecutors' requests to seek their extradition.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070618/ap_on_re_eu/italy_cia_kidnapping;_ylt=AghphwL1zAU7fMGK60ylKjlw24cA

[Demeter]

1. How Very Interesting--Bush Has an Ally Still? Or Was Italy Bribed?

Or perhaps the CIA is using some of its illegal wiretapping finds for blackmail?

Whose State secrets were they, and how does that justify letting a crime go unremarked?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. unlike the US, the Italians still have a working justice system

while ours is heading for the proverbial cystern.

The idea that their legal system has procedures that they follow carefully should be an example to all Americans. It seems such an alien idea after 6 yrs of Bushistas. All this means is that there is a legal question that must be answered (having to do with jurisdiction) whereupon the case will continue.