An Italian judge has convicted 23 Americans in the abduction of Abu Omar (Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr) from Milan in 2003. The Muslim cleric, suspected of terrorist activities, was sent to Cairo where he was allegedly tortured. He was released from prison in 2007 but remains in Egypt.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson expressed disappointment with the verdict. Human Rights Watch hailed the verdict as "an historic repudiation of the CIA’s crimes.” Francesco Messineo of Cambridge University authored an article last summer about the case; it is available on SSRN: The Abu Omar Case in Italy: ‘Extraordinary Renditions’ and State Obligations to Criminalize and Prosecute Torture under the UN Torture Convention.