MILAN/ROME, June 24: An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 people linked to the CIA for ‘kidnapping’ an Egyptian terrorism suspect in Milan and flying him to Egypt, where he said he was tortured, judicial sources said on Friday.

“In the judge’s order, it (the abduction) is clearly attributed to the CIA,” a source said.

Confirming the arrest warrant without mentioning the US intelligence agency, the prosecutor’s office said the 13 suspects were believed to be behind the abduction of imam Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was grabbed off a Milan street on Feb 17, 2003, and stuffed into a white van.

Osama Nasr was then taken to a US air base in Aviano, Italy, and flown to Egypt, stopping over on the way in Ramstein, Germany, to change planes, the prosecutor’s statement said.

The judicial source cited the warrant, which has still not been made public, as saying a CIA agent known to Italian authorities coordinated the operation.

The source added there was no indication the Italian government had authorized the ‘illegal kidnapping’.

A CIA spokesperson in Washington said: “We’re not even not commenting. We’re saying: if we have anything to say, we’ll get back to you.” The US embassy in Rome declined comment.

The prosecutor’s office said it would request ‘judicial assistance’ from US and Egyptian authorities.

Another judicial source said: “We know some of the identities of these (suspects) with certainty, but with others we are not sure of their true identity.”

Foreign intelligence officials believe Osama Nasr had fought in Afghanistan and Bosnia before arriving in Italy in 1997 and obtaining political refugee status. When he disappeared, he was under investigation in Italy for suspected ties to terrorism, including recruiting militants for Iraq.

Italy laid charges against Osama Nasr on Friday, formally ordering his arrest for terrorism, which paves the way for his possible extradition to Milan. But his current whereabouts are unknown.

Secret transfers of suspects to foreign states for interrogation are an acknowledged tool of the US in its ‘war on terrorism’, but it denies charges that the practice — known as rendition — amounts to outsourcing torture. —Reuters