Word: verdict
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...Verdict: Skim...
Twenty-two CIA agents who were convicted by a Milan court on Wednesday of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric are unlikely to spend any time in prison. The verdict, announced by Milan judge Oscar Magi, is only the first step in the labyrnthine Italian legal system, and the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has shown no desire to pursue the case...
...years in jail; Robert Seldon Lady, the agency's former station chief in Milan, was given eight years. All of the Americans, however, were tried in absentia. Defense lawyers were appointed by the court but had no contact with their clients. The lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict, which came at the end of a nearly three-year trial...
...says it will not publicly react to the verdict. "The CIA has not commented on any of the allegations surrounding Abu Omar," says spokesman George Little. But lawyers familiar with the Italian legal system say the 23 Americans need not fear incarceration. Magi's verdict "is worthless; it's only a judgment on paper," says New York criminal defense attorney Joseph DiBenedetto, who has defended clients who were indicted in Italy. "There's a lengthy appellate process, and between the legal and the political wrangling, [the verdict] will probably be whittled down and maybe even tossed...
...should the Americans worry about the verdict being executed by other European governments. "I doubt that any country would step on the U.S.'s toes," says DiBenedetto. Berlusconi was also Prime Minister in 2003; neither he nor Romano Prodi, who was Prime Minister from 2006 to 2008, sought to extradite the CIA defendants. Berlusconi is unlikely to press for them to be put in prison...