Milan judge convicts 23 Americans of kidnap

AN Italian judge yesterday convicted 23 Americans of the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street, in a landmark case involving the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme in the war on terrorism.

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

Former Milan CIA station chief Robert Seldon Lady received the stiffest sentence, eight years in prison. The other 22 convicted American defendants each received a five-year sentence.