Italian intelligence chief arrested over CIA kidnap

July 5, 2006

Marco Mancini, a director of a division of the Italian SISMI military intelligence agency has been arrested in Milan over his role in the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian terrorist suspect by agents of the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in what is believed to be an instance of Extraordinary Rendition.

Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, is an Egyptian cleric living in Italy who was abducted, allegedly by covert agents of the CIA on February 17, 2003 from Milan and flown to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.

Italian investigators suspected that Nasr had links with Al Qaeda and say that they were investigating him when he was abducted.

In June 2005, Italian judge Guido Salvini issued a warrant for the arrest of 22 persons said to be agents or operatives of the CIA over the kidnapping.