Italian court upholds conviction of Americans in rendition case

Italy’s highest criminal court has upheld the conviction of 23 Americans tried in absentia for the CIA’s program of extraordinary rendition, The Associated Press reports.

The ruling on the appealed case marks the end of a three and a half year trial that is the first of its kind anywhere in the world. 

The initial conviction came down in 2009, when Italian Judge Oscar Magi ruled that 23 Americans, almost all of them said to be CIA agents, had kidnapped a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003.

In the wake of the Court of Cassation ruling, the Americans now risk arrest if they travel to Europe. One court-appointed lawyer, Alessia Sorgato, was quoted by the AP saying "Now they will ask for extradition."

None of the convicted have ever been in Italian custody.

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