Italy on Tuesday granted a partial pardon to a former CIA agent found guilty of the kidnap of an Egyptian imam in 2003, in a case that has sparked a long legal tussle.
She had gone on trial in absentia along with 22 others in what were the first legal convictions in the world against people involved in the CIA's extraordinary renditions programme that followed the September 11, 2001, attacks.
But Italian President Sergio Mattarella has granted her "a partial pardon of one year's imprisonment", reducing her jail time to three years of a lenient form of a sentence that does not necessarily need to be served behind bars and allows the convict to work.
Mattarella's statement notably did not mention plans to extradite de Sousa, and he said her sentence -- which would no longer involve physical detention -- could potentially be further relaxed.
The presidency said it had "taken into account the attitude of the convicted, the fact that the United States has stopped the practice of extraordinary rendition, and the need to rebalance the sentence with those of other people convicted for the same offence.
" Omar was kidnapped from a Milan street on February 17, 2003, in an operation allegedly led jointly by the CIA and the Italian intelligence services.
The Local
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