An Italian judge yesterday ordered 26 Americans, most of them believed to be CIA agents, to stand trial for the kidnapping and torture of a Muslim cleric.

In the first criminal court case arising from the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme, the judge also indicted five Italians, including the former head of Italy’s military intelligence.

The trial threatens embarassing revelations over the CIA programme in which terror suspects were seized in one country and taken to another. The tactic has been one of the most controversial in the US led War on Terror.

Osama Mustafa Hassan, also known as Abu Omar, was allegedly kidnapped on a Milan street in February 2003 by CIA agents in collusion with their Italian counterparts. He was flown from Aviano to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and then to Egypt, where he claims that he was tortured. He was released in Cairo this week.

The trial is likely to encourage prosecutors in other European countries to pursue similar cases. A prosecutor in Munich has issued arrest warrants against 13 people for an alleged kidnapping of a German citizen.

It will also increase pressure on other European Governments to disclose the extent of their cooperation with the rendition programme. The Government in Spain has agreed to declassify an intelligence report on the CIA’s use of Spanish airports after a request from a judge.

A European Parliament report into rendition, approved this week, claims that Britain allowed 170 secret CIA flights connected to the illegal seizure of terror suspects to make stopovers at its airports, second in number only to Germany.

Washington acknowledges secret transfers of terror suspects to third countries but denies using torture.

Yesterday Caterina Interlandi, a Milan judge, set a trial hearing for June 8. The US citizens charged include Bob Seldon Lady, the former CIA station chief in Milan and Jeff Castelli, described as head of CIA operations in Italy. None of the Americans is expected to return to stand trial in Italy, where defendants can be tried in absentia.

It is unclear whether the centre-left Government of Romano Prodi will seek their extradition. The previous Italain Government, headed by the staunchly pro-American Silvio Berlusconi, rejected earlier extradition requests.

The Italians who will stand trial include Nicolò Pollari, then head of Sismi, Italy’s military intelligence service. In preliminary hearings Mr Pollari denied that Italian intelligence had any role in the kidnapping. He complained that he was unable to defend himself because documents which would prove his case were classified. Prosecutors say that the kidnapping was a breach of Italian sovereignty that compromised Italy’s antiterrorism efforts.

A key witness in the trial will be Luciano Pironi, an Italian police officer who has admitted stopping Abu Omar so that CIA agents could seize him, for which he is serving a 21-month prison sentence. He claimed that the operation was approved by both the Italian and US Governments, but that he was told the purpose was to recruit the imam as an informer, not to fly him abroad to be tortured.

Guido Meroni, who represents six of the accused Americans, claimed that the evidence against them was circumstantial, based on telephone interceptions and their presence in hotels close to the kidnapping operation.

At the time of his abduction Mr Hassan was under investigation for alleged links to the terrorist group Ansar al-Islam. He has vowed to return to Italy and sue Mr Berlusconi for €10 million (£6.7 million) in compensation.

Mr Hassan claims that he was bundled into a white van, beaten and blindfolded as he made his way to the mosque. During interrogations he was blindfolded “with my hands tied up to my back, totally naked, and my body hanging from the ceiling by my feet while my head was suspended upside down”.

He said that he was held “in a tiny cell, [with] no lavatory, weak lighting and a very small hole in the ceiling for ventilation.” He added: “I was subjected to electric shocks all over my body specially in my head, nipples, testicles and penis.”

The US Administration was saying little about the arrests. Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said: “It’s a judicial matter in Italy.” Any view about possible prosecutions or extraditions would remain a matter for “internal dialogue,” he added.

Spotlight on abduction

The CIA practice of extraordinary rendition was revealed in November 2005. It involves the US transfer of untried terror suspects, or those suspected of links to terror groups, to camps overseas, with flights using European airports as stopovers.

President Bush admitted in September 2006 that 14 suspects had been detained in secret centres abroad, but declined to say where.

At least 1,245 flights were operated by the CIA through European airspace and airports between September 11, 2001, and the end of 2005, according to a report for the European Parliament this week.

The most stopovers were logged for Germany (336) followed by Britain (170) and Ireland (147).

The flights were allowed by 14 EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Britain, Cyprus, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden.

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