The agents were also ordered to pay 1.5 million euros (2.0 million dollars) in damages to radical cleric Osama Mustafa Hassan (known as Abu Omar) and his wife for the 2003 abduction. The operation was allegedly coordinated by the CIA and the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI. Abu Omar, was allegedly taken to the Aviano US air base in northeastern Italy, flown to a US base in Germany, and then on to Cairo, where he says he was tortured.
This would be an example of how courts can stand up to political pressure (after Wikileaks showed the Obama Administration pressured Spanish courts to drop its case against Bush officials for torture) . . . except for the fact that the court acquitted the then head of Italian military intelligence, Nicolo Pollari, and his assistant Marco Mancini. The reason is that the government claimed the Italian version of the state secrets privilege.
That ruling creates a rather bizarre situation where the court convicts everyone but the Italian officials in the conspiracy. If the others could be prosecuted without violating state secrets, one would think these defendants could have been similarly prosecuted. More importantly, there should be an exception under state secrets for criminal acts or any government could simply commit crimes with impunity under the privilege.
Putting that aside, it is distressing to other nations pursuing these cases while the Obama Administration blocks cases both domestically and internationally. What is clear is that these agents will not be able to travel outside of the United States without risking arrest.
Source: Google
Jonathan Turley