LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A Portuguese court has ruled that a former CIA operative convicted of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric as part of an extraordinary renditions program should be turned over to Italy to serve her six-year sentence there, a court official said Friday.
The official told The Associated Press the decision to extradite Sabrina De Sousa was handed down on Tuesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with court rules.
De Sousa's Portuguese lawyer, Manuel Magalhaes e Silva, told the AP in an email he was officially informed of the decision Friday and intends to lodge an appeal at the Supreme Court. He said that if that fails, he will go to the Constitutional Court.
De Sousa was among 26 Americans convicted in absentia for the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Milan. She has since requested a pardon from Italy.
She was arrested at Lisbon Airport in October on a European warrant. Authorities seized her passport while awaiting the court decision on her extradition.
De Sousa, who was working in Italy under diplomatic cover, faces prison for her role in the 2003 kidnapping of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, a terror suspect who was under surveillance by Italian law enforcement at the time. The case, which also implicated Italy's secret services, has proven embarrassing to successive Italian governments.
De Sousa, who was born in India and holds both U.S. and Portuguese passports, has said that she had been living in Portugal and intended to settle there. She was on her way to visit her elderly mother in India with a round-trip ticket when she was detained.
