Ex-CIA agent continues fight against extradition to Italy

LISBON, Portugal – A former CIA agent has lodged another appeal at Portugal’s constitutional Court against her extradition to Italy to serve a four-year sentence for her part in the U.S. extraordinary renditions program, a court official said Thursday.

Sabrina de Sousa has asked the constitutional Court to appoint a three-judge panel to review a decision last month by one of its judges to permit her extradition, the official told The Associated Press.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with court rules, couldn’t say how long a court decision might take. If the panel can’t reach a unanimous decision on the appeal, it will go to a five-judge panel for a majority decision.

De Sousa said in an email that the appeal sought “to clarify conflicting information between Italian Ministry of Justice and Milan prosecutor.”

She did not elaborate. Her Portuguese lawyer, Manuel Magalhaes e Silva, did not immediately reply to an email asking on what grounds the appeal was lodged.

Since her October arrest in Lisbon, De Sousa has lost her extradition fight at a lower court and her appeal of that decision to the Supreme Court. The constitutional Court is her last hope.

De Sousa was among 26 Americans convicted in absentia for the 2003 kidnapping in Milan of terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr. She was arrested at Lisbon airport on a European warrant.

The extraordinary rendition program was part of the anti-terrorism strategy of the U.S. administration following the Sept. 11 attacks. President Barack Obama ended the program years later.

De Sousa has insisted she wasn’t involved in the Milan abduction.

Her Italian lawyer has previously said he is hopeful of obtaining clemency from Italy’s head of state. President Sergio Mattarella has granted clemency to other defendants convicted in the case.