Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/in-italy-judge-convicts-23-americans-in-cia-kidnapping-case Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript An Italian judge on Wednesday convicted 23 Americans in the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan. Ray Suarez speaks with a Los Angeles Times reporter for more on the landmark case. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. RAY SUAREZ: The verdicts came in Milan, where a judge convicted 23 Americans of kidnapping an Egyptian terror suspect in 2003. They had been tried in absentia. The case was closely followed in Italy. It was the first prosecution by any government involving extraordinary rendition.The CIA program moved suspects from place to place overseas for interrogation, without arrests or extradition hearings. The target in this case was Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, an Egyptian cleric also known as Abu Omar living in political asylum in Italy.The Americans were accused of abducting him off the street in Milan as he walked to his mosque on February 17, 2003. He was taken to U.S. military bases in Italy and Germany, before winding up in Egypt.In 2007, he was released without being charged. He showed dark scars on his wrists and ankles and said he had been tortured by the Egyptians. OSAMA MOUSTAFA HASSAN NASR (through translator): I would like to appeal to the Italian judiciary and the Italian government to stand by me in this ordeal that I faced. I want to go back to Italy, but I'm banned from leaving Egypt. I want to go back and stand in front of the Italian judiciary and prove my innocence. RAY SUAREZ: In the end, Abu Omar was never allowed to return to Italy. But the trial proceeded without him and without any of the 26 Americans originally charged in the case.Most of the 26 were identified as employees of the CIA. Three were acquitted, in part because of diplomatic immunity. Those convicted included the agency's former station chief in Milan, who got eight years in prison.The other 22 were sentenced to five years each. Seven Italians were also charged in the case, but only two were convicted as accomplices.In Washington, the CIA declined to comment on the case or its outcome. A State Department spokesman said the U.S. government is disappointed, but he said he expected an appeal. That process could take years.For more on the case, we turn to a reporter who has covered it since the beginning. Sebastian Rotella is a national security correspondent for "The Los Angeles Times" and other Tribune newspapers. Up until July of this year, he was an investigative correspondent based in Europe and focusing on terrorism.And, Sebastian, there have been many cases of extraordinary rendition reported on over the past eight years. How did this one get to court?