A Milan court has issued a European arrest warrant for 22 CIA agents suspected of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric from Italy's financial capital in 2003, Prosecutor Armando Spataro said today.
The case is one of several investigations into whether US intelligence agents used Europe to illegally transfer militant suspects to third countries for interrogation. The renditions have led to tensions between Washington and the European Union.
Milan magistrates suspect a CIA team grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street and flew him for interrogation to Egypt, where he said he was tortured.
Prosecutors asked the Italian Justice Ministry last month to seek the extradition of the suspects from the United States, but Justice Minister Roberto Castelli has not yet decided whether to act on the request.
A EU warrant is automatically valid across the 25-nation bloc and does not require the approval of any government.
The warrant was agreed by the European Union in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001 and was hailed as a key part of the bloc's fight against terrorism.
Under the agreement, any EU member state can ask another to hand over a suspect and in most cases, the other state will have to comply.
Spataro told Reuters he had also asked Interpol to try to detain the agents anywhere in the world.
The US embassy in Rome was not immediately available for comment and telephone calls seeking comment from the White House, Justice Department, Central Intelligence Agency and State Department were not immediately returned.
Earlier this week, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he did not believe CIA agents had kidnapped Nasr, but added governments would not defeat terrorism by playing by the rules.