REUTERS/Nasser Nuri
Former CIA agent Sabrina De Sousa will be extradited to Italy to serve out a four-year prison sentence for her alleged involvement in a U.S. program that kidnapped terror suspects for interrogation, according to reports. The 61-year-old was convicted in the case, along with 25 other Americans. The group was accused of abducting Osama Moustafa Hassan Nas off a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003. De Sousa has consistently denied involvement in the kidnapping since her October 2015 arrest in Lisbon on a European warrant. Terror suspects were routinely kidnapped, interrogated, and tortured under the U.S. rendition program in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. The strategy was part of President George W. Bush’s anti-terrorism plan, but President Barack Obama ended the program after he took office. De Sousa has lost several appeals against her extradition, and claims she is unable to properly defend herself without providing classified information about the U.S. government. “We are deeply disappointed in her conviction and sentence,” said acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner. “This is a matter that U.S. officials have been following closely. We have asked our European counterparts what their next steps may be, but we are not in a position to detail those discussions.”