Italy Reduces Sentence for Ex-C.I.A. Officer Sought in Rendition Case

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/europe/italy-rendition-cia-sabrina-de-sousa-cleric.html

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ROME — A 10-year legal battle over the “extraordinary rendition” of a terrorism suspect by American intelligence agents seemed to draw nearer to resolution on Tuesday, when the president of Italy commuted part of a prison sentence that one former C.I.A. officer had been given in absentia.

The president’s decree opens the way for the former officer, Sabrina de Sousa, 61, to avoid imprisonment, by serving her remaining sentence some other way, such as through monitored release or community service.

Ms. de Sousa was indicted in 2007, along with 25 other Americans, over the kidnapping of a radical Egyptian cleric in Milan in 2003. Several high-ranking Italian intelligence officials also were indicted, but the case against them fell apart when evidence was withheld from the court on national security grounds.

Ms. de Sousa and the other Americans left Italy before the indictment, so they were tried and convicted in absentia. Most have remained beyond the reach of Italian law by not traveling to Europe. But Ms. de Sousa, who has both American and Portuguese citizenship, moved to Portugal in 2015 for family reasons. Since October 2015, she has been fighting in the Portuguese courts to avoid extradition to Italy; most recently, she was detained on Feb. 21 in Lisbon and was scheduled to be sent to Milan by Thursday.

Ms. de Sousa was initially sentenced to seven years for kidnapping; that was later reduced to four years, and President Sergio Mattarella reduced it on Tuesday to three. Under Italian law, sentences of three years or less are eligible for alternatives to imprisonment.

After Mr. Mattarella acted, the Italian authorities revoked the arrest warrant that was the basis for the extradition order. Ms. de Sousa now has 30 days to petition a court in Milan for alternative punishment. It was not immediately clear when she would do so.

“She’ll come to Italy to defend herself as a free woman,” said Dario Bolognesi, Ms. de Sousa’s Italian lawyer, who has been seeking a pardon for his client for more than four years. “We’re very happy with the outcome.”

Had she gone to prison, Ms. de Sousa, would have been the first former C.I.A. operative to serve time in prison outside the United States over the controversial rendition program. Two of the Americans convicted along with her have been pardoned, and a third had his sentence reduced.

Her role in the case came to light when Italian prosecutors were investigating the 2003 abduction of the cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was seized in Milan and taken to Egypt.

Mr. Nasr, who had been granted political asylum in Italy, said he was interrogated and tortured in Egypt before being released. His case helped fuel a broad debate over the practice, begun after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, of abducting terrorism suspects and transferring them to other countries or to secret C.I.A. prisons abroad for interrogation.

In the years since she left the C.I.A., Ms. de Sousa has been publicly critical of the rendition program. Even so, some human rights advocates expressed disappointment at the Italian president’s clemency for her.

“It is very worrying, and sends a clear message that you can engage in what amount to be crimes under international law — torture and enforced disappearance — and get away with it,” said Julia Hall of Amnesty International. “Pardoning people, or giving lesser sentences effectively letting them off the hook, is not the way to give victims of these crimes justice.”

Ms. Hall did, however, criticize the conviction in absentia of Ms. de Sousa, and said she should have the right to a “fair retrial” and the chance to contest the charges against her. “Without that process, this remains unfinished business,” she said.

Under Italian law, Ms. de Sousa has exhausted her appeals, though, so a new trial did not appear to be a possibility.

Mr. Mattarella’s statement announcing the reduction of the sentence said he had taken into account that the United States had discontinued the rendition program and that her sentence was out of balance with the consequences others in the case had faced.

Ms. de Sousa’s lawyer, Mr. Bolognesi, said her sentence “was so clearly an injustice, when three others were pardoned, state secrecy was invoked for some defendants, and yet she was facing prison.

“It made no sense, in particular because she later took a strong position against renditions.”