Italian judge convicts 23 in CIA kidnap case

By The Associated Press

Photo by LUCA BRUNO / AP

Italian Judge Oscar Magi, seen at the Milan court, Italy, Wednesday.

ADVERSTISMENT

MILAN, Italy — An Italian judge says he has convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric from a Milan street in a CIA extraordinary rendition.

Citing diplomatic immunity, Judge Oscar Magi told the Milan courtroom Wednesday that he was acquitting three other Americans.

Twenty-two of the convicted Americans were immediately sentenced to five years in jail at the end of the nearly three-year trial. The other convicted American, Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady, was given the stiffest sentence, eight years in prison.

All of the Americans were tried in absentia.

Magi said he was acquitting five Italian defendants because Italy withheld evidence, contending it was classified information.