Associated Press
Lisbon, June 8: A former CIA agent said Wednesday she will be extradited to Italy to serve a prison sentence for her part in the US extraordinary renditions programme after Portugal’s Constitutional Court rejected her final appeal. Sabrina de Sousa said she is waiting to be told when she will be taken to Italy, where she was convicted in absentia and has a four-year sentence to serve. Since her October arrest in Lisbon on a European arrest warrant, De Sousa has lost her extradition fight at a lower Lisbon court and her appeal of that decision to the Portuguese Supreme Court. De Sousa was among 26 Americans convicted for the kidnapping of terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, from a Milan street February 17, 2003.
She insists she wasn’t involved in the abduction. The Constitutional Court said in a ruling posted on its website late Tuesday that De Sousa’s appeal was rejected. Under Portuguese legal procedure, the Constitutional Court now sends its decision back to the lower court. That court then informs the police, who set in motion the extradition process in conjunction with Italian authorities. De Sousa said in an email that she had “no idea” when she might be sent to Italy. Her Italian lawyer has previously said he is hopeful of obtaining clemency from Italy’s head of state in the case, which has also implicated Italy’s secret services and proven embarrassing to successive Italian governments.
