MILAN (Reuters) - A Milan judge on Friday ordered 26 Americans, most of them thought to be CIA agents, to stand trial with Italian spies for the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, who says he was flown to Egypt and tortured there.
Among those indicted are the former heads of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Rome and Milan, and the former head of Italy's SISMI military intelligence agency, Nicolo Pollari, defense lawyers said.
The trial, set to begin on June 8, will be the first criminal case over "renditions" -- one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.
Beyond embarrassing Washington, the case also threatens to pit the Italian government against the independent judiciary in a battle to protect state secrets.
Washington acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries but denies using or sanctioning torture, and is not expected to hand over its agents for trial.
Prosecutor Armando Spataro on Friday criticized the "silence of the current government" for failing to explain why it had not yet forwarded his extradition requests for the Americans.
Spataro says a CIA-led team, with SISMI's help, grabbed Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, off a Milan street in February 2003, bundled him into a van and drove him to a military base in northern Italy.
