LISBON:

Newswatch

Portugal plans to extradite to Italy a former CIA agent convicted over the 2003 abduction of a radical Egyptian imam, a case that highlighted the controversial US secret rendition programme.

Sabrina de Sousa, arrested at Lisbon airport in October 2015 under a European warrant, said Friday that the extradition procedure was due to start “after January 3”.

De Sousa and 23 others were convicted in absentia by an Italian court in 2009 over the kidnapping of Abu Omar from a Milan street in an operation allegedly led jointly by the CIA and the Italian intelligence services.

The trial took place under intense scrutiny because it was the first time anyone had been brought to justice over the extraordinary renditions by the US and its allies after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.

Omar, who had been given political asylum in Italy in 2001, claimed he was tortured after being flown to Egypt via Germany.

De Sousa, 60, told AFP

that Portugal’s decision to proceed with extradition had been expected, after it was delayed in June over whether she would be granted a fresh trial or the chance to appeal her conviction. (AFP)