Public prosecutors in Italy have urged a court in Milan to jail 26 Americans for the kidnapping of a terrorism suspect in a 2003 CIA operation.

The Italian lawyers are seeking sentences of between 10 and 13 years for the US agents. They also want 13 years for the former head of Italy’s secret service, Nicolo Pollari. The trial is the most high profile case in Europe to challenge the extra-judicial transfers also known as ‘renditions. It centres on the abduction of the Muslim Cleric Abu Omar, who was snatched off the streets of Milan in 2003 and secretly flown to Egypt for interrogation. He says he was tortured and held until 2007 without charge. The US has refused to extradite any of the Americans. None of them are at the trial. The last Bush administration admitted using Rendition as part of its so called ‘War on Terror.’