The Italian Court of Cassation Delivers its Ruling in the Abu Omar Case. The Court's Decision

Published date01 March 2013
DOI10.1177/203228441300400112
Date01 March 2013
Subject MatterAnalysis and Opinion
180 Intersentia
THE ITALIAN COURT OF CASSATION
DELIVERS ITS RULING IN THE ABU OMAR
CASE. THE COURT’S DECISION
P I and I W*
is case note complements the ful ler contribution published in the last issue of t his
journal on the decision of the Ita lian Court of Cassation in the Abu Oma r case.1
Mr. Osama Mustafa Hassa n Nasr, aka Abu Omar, an Egyptian national, had be en
working in Mila n, Italy, as an imam since 2000. I n 2003 he was kidnapped by Centra l
Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives supported by several o cers from the Italian
Military Intelligence and Security Service o cers (SISMI),2 and sent to Egypt where
he was allegedly tortured. Italian magistrates opened an investigation into the case,
and on 4 November 2009 the Tribunal of First Instance convicted 24 American
citizens of the cri me of abduction and two Italian citi zens for aiding and abetti ng a er
the predicate crime. It fu rther barred the prosecution of three Amer ican citizens,3 on
diplomatic immunity grounds and dismissed the indictment against  ve Italia n
citizens on State secret grounds.4 e decision was entirely con rmed, as far as legal
reasoni ng is concerned, by t he Court of Appe al on 15 December 2010,5 and an appeal
was brought before the Court of Cas sation.
* Pietro Insolera i s a PhD student at Trento University, Irene Wieczorek is a PhD student at Vrije
Universiteit Brussels.
1 I. Wieczorek, ‘ e Italian Court of Cassation delivers its ruling in the Abu Omar case. What to
expect from t he decision?’, NJECL 2012, n. 3–4, p.412 and  .
2 In Italian “ Servizio per le I nformazioni e la Sicure zza Milita re”, hence the acronym SISMi. Wit h the
reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007, SISMI was replaced by
Agenzia Inform azioni e Sicurezza E sterna. Legislat ive Act No. 124/2007 of 3Augu st 2007.
3 ere has been a sepa rate appeal agai nst this decision.  e Mi lan Court of Appea l has only recently
made its verdict public . It has not uphold the reasoning of the First Instance Cour t, and it has
condemned the th ree CIA agents to respectively 7 (Castel li) and 6 (Russomando, Medero) years.
e decision ha s not been made pubic yet. Against th is decision there could be appeal b efore the
Court of Cass ation. See in the press: ww w.aljazeer a.com/news/europe/2013/02/201322045566149.
html (ast accesse d 5February 2013).
4 Tribunale di Mi lano, decision n. 12428/09 of 4/11/2009. Dec ision in the Italian la nguage available
at: www.penalecontemporaneo.it/upload /Trib.%20Milano,%204.11.2009%20(sent.),%20Est.%20
Magi%20(Abu%20Oma r).pdf (last accessed 4Febr uary 2013).
5 Corte d’Appello di M ilano, decision n. 3688/10 of 15/12/2010. Decision in Ita lian langua ge available at:
www.penalecontemporaneo.it/upload/C.%20App.%20Milano,%2015.12.10,%20caso%20Abu%20
Omar.pdf (las t accessed 4Februar y 2012).

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