ROME -- Italy has been convicted by the European Court of Human Rights for allowing the abduction, illegal detention and torture of former imam Abu Omar, the Egyptian political exile and terror suspect seized in Italy in 2003 in part of the CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' operation.

 Italy has been condemned by the Strasbourg court for multiple violations of Abu Omar's human rights, among which the right to remain free from torture and inhuman treatment, and the right to a family, from who he was forcibly separated.

 The court ruled that Italy "must be held directly responsible for the violations" because, although Italian authorities were not the perpetrators of the mistreatment, "they did not prevent the situation" by carrying out the necessary measures.

 Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, known better as Abu Omar, was abducted by the CIA in 2003 in Milan before being transferred to a U.S. air force base and flown to Egypt, where he was tortured. He had been being monitored by the CIA in Italy for possible links to a terrorist recruitment network and to Al-Qaeda, but these were never proved.

 Omar was granted political asylum in Italy in 2001 after having fled persecution by the Egyptian government for his alleged membership of radical Sunny Islamist group al-Gam'a a-Islamiyya. His abduction came at a time when both the U.S. and Britain were preparing for the invasion of Iraq and were seeking reasons to justify the move, following the September 11 attacks in 2001. It was after these attacks that Washington's 'extraordinary rendition' programme was set up to capture and interrogate terror suspects, the majority of whom were never charged with any crime but were submitted to U.S. controlled sites for extensive torture and interrogation.

 Omar's abduction under this programme was brought as a case before an Italian court in 2009, which sentenced 22 CIA agents, among whom the head of CIA in Italy until 2003, Jeffrey W. Castelli. The prosecutors requested the extradition of the accused American citizens, but the Italian Justice Ministry ignored the ruling and under four successive prime ministers between 2005 and 2013 the information was retained, citing 'State secrecy'.

 Ironically Italy, the only country to bring a case against the U.S.'s 'extraordinary rendition' programme, is now the second ever in the European Council to be condemned by the ECHR. The recent ruling states that Italy improperly applied the legal principle of 'State secrecy' in order to ensure that the convicted CIA agents responsible for the abduction and torture "did not have to account for their actions."

 As a result Italy is now to pay 70,000 euros to Abu Omar and 15,000 to his wife for moral damages.

 Abu Omar now lives in Egypt with his family after being convicted in absentia by an Italian court in 2013 to six years for association with international terrorist groups.

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