CIA agent who abducted Egyptian in 2003 to serve her sentence

A former CIA agent who was convicted by an Italian court in 2009 of abducting an Egyptian imam in Milan intends to return to Italy to serve her sentence fourteen years after the offence took place. The kidnapping was carried out in what is believed to have been a joint operation by American and Italian intelligence officers.

Sabrina de Sousa, who holds dual US and Portuguese nationality, was convicted in absentia for her role in the rendition of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar, from Italy to Egypt. The abduction became one of the most high profile kidnappings of suspected terrorists to black-ops sites in the early days of the war on terror. It was the first closely documented case involving a highly classified counterterrorism programme which included intelligent agencies from multiple countries.

Abu Omar was granted political asylum in Italy in 2001 where, according to the Guardian, the Italian and US authorities became suspicious of him. He was abducted in 2003 and flown to Cairo via the US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany before being handed over to the Egyptian authorities. It is alleged that he was detained, interrogated and tortured until his initial release in April 2004. Last year, an Italian court ordered the payment of €70,000 in compensation to Abu Omar and €15,000 to his wife.

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De Sousa was sentenced in absentia along with 25 other CIA officials in what were the world’s first legal convictions of people involved in the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” programme that followed the 11 September, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. However, she is the only CIA operative to go to jail in connection with the capture of Abu Omar; his was one of hundreds of such renditions that put alleged terror suspects in secret interrogation facilities where they were liable to be tortured.

Speaking to journalists in 2012, the former CIA agent said that she had been made a “scapegoat” for what was described by Newsweek as an unnecessary and ill-planned operation that was pushed by the CIA’s then station chief, Jeffrey Castelli. The operation was apparently given the green light by Condoleezza Rice, President George W. Bush’s national security adviser.

Following De Sousa’s conviction, a European Arrest Warrant was issued for her arrest, which led to her detention in 2015.

Explaining her reason for travelling to Portugal where it was certain that she would be arrested, De Sousa said, “I kind of decided that this issue of mine needed to be resolved and had exhausted everything possible in the US to do so. But mainly [I left the US] because I was seeing the prospect of never seeing my family here again.”

De Sousa hopes to serve a sentence that will be determined by the Italian court and expects to be released on parole after carrying out community service in Portugal where she is due to undergo surgery.