Egypt releases cleric at centre of rendition case

Feb 12, 2007, 10:07 GMT

Cairo/Rome - Egyptian authorities have released cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, 44, who was detained for four years without charge on suspicion of terrorist activities, sources said Monday.

Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was released on Sunday evening. His lawyer Montaser al-Zayat said he had returned to his home town of Alexandria but had changed his address to avoid talking to the media.

Abu Omar is an Egyptian cleric who was living in Italy after his Islamic organization was declared illegal by the Egyptian government in the 1980s.

He is reported to have served as an informant for the Albanian national intelligence service, SHiK and, indirectly, the CIA, in 1995.

Abu Omar was illegally abducted by persons allegedly affiliated with the CIA in February 2003.

He claimed that he had been taken by US agents to a joint US-Italian base and eventually flown to Alexandria in Egypt, where he was 'rendered' into the hands of Egypt's State Security Intelligence.

Abu Omar claims to have been subjected to torture during his detention.

His alleged abduction is at the centre of judicial proceedings currently under way in Italy, with a preliminary hearing in Milan set to decide on the indictment of CIA agents continuing Monday.

This is the first time that CIA so-called 'extraordinary rendition' operations are being made accountable to the law.