A former C.I.A. station chief is seeking a pardon from Italy’s president, Giorgio Napolitano, for his 2009 kidnapping conviction in the “extraordinary rendition” of a Muslim cleric off the streets of Milan. An Italian court convicted the former officer, Robert Seldon Lady, and 22 other American intelligence officials for a 2003 operation in which the cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, was swept up and turned over to the authorities in Egypt. The case brought international attention to the controversial Bush administration practice of abducting suspected Islamic terrorists and transporting them for interrogation in countries that allow torture. Mr. Lady was convicted in absentia. In July he was briefly arrested in Panama, before being released. He has said he was doing his duty in the global war on terrorism.