Former CIA agent to do community service for cleric kidnap

MILAN (AP) - A former CIA agent will do community service near Rome to complete her three-year sentence for taking part in the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric in Milan 14 years ago, her lawyer said Monday.

A Milan court approved the lawyer's request for Sabrina De Sousa to complete her sentence by teaching English twice a week to minors living in state care. Her lawyer, Dario Bolognesi, said the period of community service could be made shorter by good behavior.

De Sousa was picked up on a European arrest warrant at Lisbon Airport in 2015, but Italy dropped its extradition request last March. Her seven-year sentence was reduced to three by a partial clemency and general amnesty.

De Sousa claims no wrongdoing in the kidnapping.

She is one of 26 Americans, mostly CIA agents, tried in absentia and convicted in the only trial anywhere in the world involving the CIA's extraordinary renditions program, a practice alleged to have led to torture. Full or partial clemency was issued in four cases, including De Sousa's.

The case involving the kidnapping in broad daylight from a Milan street of Muslim cleric, Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, was an embarrassment to U.S.-Italian relations. Despite repeated requests from prosecutors, no Italian government ever sought to extradite any of the Americans, even after convictions were confirmed by Italy's highest court. De Sousa was only detained after she set foot in Europe.