The Italian court decision, let’s hope, will impact such illegal and inhuman practices that US agencies carry on
 with impunity.

Egyptian cleric Hassan Osama Nasr was kidnapped in Milan in February 2003 by CIA operatives and then flown to Egypt for interrogation. Suspected of recruiting insurgents for Iraq and Afghanistan, Nasr was tortured in detention until his release in 2007. One of the thousands of cases of illegal rendition, Nasr’s case is likely to make history in terms of the decision rendered by the Italian court. Not only have US citizens been convicted of kidnapping, the CIA’s former Milan chief, Robert Seldon Lady has been sentenced to a eight year term in prison. It is unlikely that the convicted US citizens will serve their sentences since Italy is not seeking their extradition.

However, the fact that they were convicted at all for rendition, declared “illegal” by the Court, sets a precedent.

The court decision is laudable considering the pressure from Rome and Washington. It is a major victory for individuals and rights groups worldwide who have faced an uphill battle in fighting for justice for victims of rendition. The trial is a triumph of the rule of law and Italian judicial system. The US has received a lot of flak from its European allies for its counterterrorism policies in the past. Even though Obama’s decision to close Guantanamo and secret prisons around the world were widely hailed, the President’s seeming lack of will to close other dark chapters of the US policy continue to mar his image. His decision to spare the perpetrators of rights abuses under the Bush administration have only served to his detriment. The Bagram military prison in Afghanistan is often mentioned in the same breath as Guantanamo. Ignoring these elephants in the room isn’t going to help Obama’s credibility. The US government needs to do much more than express regret over the excesses of the Bush administration. It needs to start accounting for the thousands of illegally detained usual suspects. It is time to look at the other side of the fence and imagine what US nationals would have demanded had their own undergone ‘rendition’. It is time to take a stand for what is right.