The former CIA officer due to be extradited from Portugal to Italy for her alleged role in the 'extraordinary rendition' of a suspected terrorist has received a partial pardon from Italy’s President, Sergio Mattarella.
By reducing Sabrina de Sousa’s sentence from four years to three, she now will not have to serve time in jail and will be allowed to undertake some sort of community service.
The CIA operative was convicted by an Italian court for being involved in the 2003 abduction of a suspected terrorist living in Milan.
This operation had been authorised by de Sousa’s boss and sanctioned at the highest level in the US government but she denied having anything to do with the abduction.
Mark Toner, acting US State Department spokesman, commented, "We have seen reports that Italian President Mattarella has issued a partial pardon for Sabrina De Sousa. We welcome President Mattarella's action in this case."
De Sousa was working in Milan as an undercover CIA officer in 2003 when U.S. and Italian intelligence agents abducted the Egyptian cleric Osama Mustapha Hassan Nasr, aka Abu Omar, and transported him to Egypt for interrogation under the US ‘extraordinary rendition’ programme under President George W. Bush.
Despite proof de Sousa was 130 kms away when Abu Omar was lifted, she was tried anyway by an Italian court and found guilty, along with 25 other Americans - none of whom have served any jail time.
Italy first sought extradition of de Sousa with the guarantee of a retrial or appeal with new evidence, acknowledging she had been tried in absentia. Based on these guarantees, the Portuguese courts agreed to extradite.
But in June 2016, Italy sent Portugal a letter saying De Sousa's conviction was final, and no retrial would be granted.
In a move that shocked De Sousa and others in the intelligence community, Portugal's high court ordered her immediate extradition.
De Sousa was detained by the Portuguese police on February 20th and kept in isolation in preparation to being shipped to Italy to start her prison sentence. This now has been reduced by a year meaning she will not have to be jailed.
