Sabrina De Sousa

Sabrina De Sousa
Born 1956 (age 59–60)
Nationality Portugal and United States
Conviction(s) Kidnapping
Capture status
 Awaiting extradition
Wanted by
 European Union

Sabrina De Sousa (born c. 1956 in Bombay, India) is a Portuguese-American convicted (in absentia) of kidnapping. In 2009 she was convicted of kidnapping in Italy for her role in the 2003 abduction of the Muslim imam Abu Omar, who was kidnapped in Milan and subsequently tortured. Sousa was sentenced to four years in prison for her role in the kidnapping.[1] A European Arrest Warrant valid throughout Europe was subsequently issued for her arrest, and she was arrested in Portugal under that arrest warrant in 2015. She is now due to be extradited back to Italy to serve her sentence, having exhausted her appeal rights against her extradition in Portugal.[2][3]

Sousa claims to be a former undercover CIA field officer who used diplomatic cover.[4][5][6][7][8] In 2009 she sued the US State Department, claiming they should grant her diplomatic immunity for her role in the kidnapping, irrespective of the fact that diplomatic immunity is granted by the host country.[9] The State Department denied that she had diplomatic immunity, and she lost her lawsuit against the State Department. In a July 27, 2013 interview, with the McClatchy News Service, she said that she worked undercover for the CIA when the kidnapping took place.[10] She maintains she played no role in the kidnapping, was unaware of the plans, and was on a ski trip when it took place.[11]

Background

Sousa is of Goan descent and grew up in Bombay (now Mumbai). She is a citizen of Portugal and the United States, having obtained her US citizenship in 1985.[4]

De Sousa's role in the kidnapping and torture of Abu Omar

Main article: Abu Omar case

The underlying case is called the "Imam Rapito affair", which involves "kidnapping charges in Italy for the seizure of a suspected terrorist."[12] Abu Omar, a Muslim cleric, was abducted on February 17, 2003, in Milan by the CIA.[13] and transported to the Aviano Air Base, from which he was transferred to Egypt, where he was interrogated (and allegedly tortured).[14] (Abu Omar is also known as Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr and Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr.) The Italian government originally denied having played any role in the abduction, but Italian prosecutors Armando Spataro and Ferdinand Enrico Pomarici indicted two dozen American and Italian government employees and agents.[15]

Italian authorities issued an arrest warrant in 2006 for De Sousa.[7] They named her publicly in July 2008.[16] She is not alleged to have kidnapped Omar herself, but is said to have "helped make false documents to mislead investigators."[17] She claims an alibi that she was "vacationing at a ski resort nearly 130 miles away in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy."[12]

De Sousa is alleged by the Italian judicial system to be an intelligence officer.[5][12][18] They claim that she is part of a "CIA network",[19] serving under diplomatic cover.[20] She claims to be a diplomat.[5][12] She was registered with the United States Embassy in Rome as "second secretary" but posted in Milan.[21] She was a State Department employee,[17] until she resigned in February 2009.[5]

She was convicted of kidnapping for her role in the Imam rapito affair on November 4, 2009 by an Italian court, after a trial in absentia and a plea of not guilty.[1][22]

She was briefly detained at the Lisbon airport in Portugal on October 5, 2015.[23][24] Her passport was confiscated, and she is awaiting a decision on whether she will be turned over to Italy to serve her six-year sentence.[23][24] In January 2016, she was ordered extradited to Italy, although that order will be appealed.[24] She has disclaimed any involvement in the affair and has been working to clear her name, including writing a memoir about her activities.[24] Her appeal was denied on April 11, 2016.[25]

On April 11, 2016, the Portuguese Supreme Court upheld De Sousa's extradition.[4] According to the New York Times, she will be filing a further appeal to Portugal's Constitutional Court, due to a difference between how Portugal and Italy handle convictions in absentia. According to the New York Times she will argue that if she were extradited she could not count on Italy granting her a re-trial, whereas a right to a re-trial is routinely allowed in Portugal.

On 8 June 2016, the Portuguese Constitutional Court upheld the Supreme Court's decision. Sabrina de Sousa is now due to be extradited to Italy.

De Sousa's lawsuit

De Sousa sued for a declaration that she is a diplomat with immunity from prosecution:

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday (May 2009) in federal court in Washington, Sabrina De Sousa wants diplomatic immunity and government-funded legal counsel in Italy. She claims she was a foreign service officer working in Milan and was not involved in the 2003 seizure of Muslim cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. But Italian prosecutors say De Sousa, a 53-year-old India native, was a CIA officer[26] working under diplomatic cover and was one of four main U.S. officials responsible for coordinating Omar's capture from a Milan street in broad daylight on February 17, 2003.
— AP story[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Rachael Donadio (2009-11-04). "Italy Convicts 23 Americans for C.I.A. Renditions". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2016-01-15. Retrieved 2016-04-14.
  2. ↑ Pete Hoekstra (2016-06-17). "Obama administration's absurd priorities". Fox News. Retrieved 2016-06-20. Portugal will soon extradite former CIA officer Sabrina de Sousa to Italy for incarceration. Her crime? She executed the orders of her CIA superiors, who were acting under the direction of the administration with oversight from Congress.
  3. ↑ Kirchgaessner, Stephanie (8 June 2016). "Ex-CIA officer faces extradition to Italy after final appeal rejected". The Guardian (UK).
  4. 1 2 3 Rachel Minder (2016-04-12). "Portuguese Supreme Court Upholds Extradition of C.I.A. Agent to Italy". New York Times. p. A8. Archived from the original on 2016-04-12. Retrieved 2016-04-13. Ms. De Sousa, who resigned from the C.I.A. in 2009, was sentenced in absentia in Italy to six years in prison. She has asked the Italian authorities for a pardon.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Scott Shane (2009-05-14). "Woman in Rendition Case Sues for Immunity". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2015-09-27. Retrieved 2016-04-13.
  6. ↑ "Separated at birth". The Left Coaster. 2006-07-09. Archived from the original on 2015-09-07. Retrieved 2009-05-14. At the same time Jeff Castelli, allegedly together with the diplomat Sabrina De Sousa, reprimanded Lady and ordered him to cut off all relations with D'Ambrosio. Jeff Castelli was then CIA station chief in Rome. Arrest warrants have been issued for Jeff Castelli and Sabrina De Sousa, as well as the agent Ralph Henry Russomando, accused of creating a false dossier to mislead Italian investigators, and Colonel Joseph Romano, then head of the Aviano Air Force Base and now at the Pentagon.
  7. 1 2 "Via Nazionale 230". European Tribune. 2006-07-07. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  8. ↑ Kevin Gosztola (2013-07-27). "Former CIA Officer & Whistleblower Sabrina De Sousa & the 'Proper Channels' Myth". Firedoglake. Archived from the original on 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2013-07-29. A major news story by Jonathan Landay of McClatchy features the first public comments from Sabrina De Sousa, a former CIA officer who has revealed details around the kidnapping of radical Islamist cleric Abu Omar in Italy in 2003.
  9. ↑ Ian Shapira (2012-07-12). "Kidnapping unravels a spy's career". Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2013-07-29. At 56, Sabrina De Sousa’s life has come to be defined by a landmark criminal case that has been playing out in Italy for much of the past decade, ever since prosecutors began investigating the disappearance of an Egyptian cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, known as Abu Omar.
  10. ↑ Jonathon S. Landay (2013-07-27). "U.S. allowed Italian kidnap prosecution to shield higher-ups, ex-CIA officer says". McClatchy News Service. Archived from the original on 2013-07-29.
  11. ↑ Adrian Chen (2013-01-31). "A Discussion with Accused CIA Agent Sabrina De Sousa". Gawker. Archived from the original on 2016-03-23. Retrieved 2013-07-29. However, she is unequivocal in asserting that she had no connection to Abu Omar's kidnapping. De Sousa didn't know Omar was being kidnapped that day in 2003, she says, and was on a ski trip in the Alps with her kids at the moment of the kidnapping. "This is a bit of scapegoatery" for an embarrassing and illegal CIA operation gone wrong, De Sousa says.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 Nedra Pickler, "Lawsuit seeks diplomatic immunity in Italian case," Associated Press, slightly different versions found at Kansas City Star website, AOL New Zealand website, CBS website, and The Herald online. Accessed May 14, 2009.
  13. ↑ Piano/Esteri/2005/11 Novembre/11/imam.shtml "Foto della Cia svela il sequestro dell'imam", Corriere della Sera, 12 novembre 2005.
  14. ↑ "I pm di Milano: arrestate gli agenti della Cia" [The Milan pm: Stop the agents of the CIA] (in Italian). Corriere della Sera. 2005-06-24. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-04-12.
  15. ↑ "Rapimento Abu Omar, a giudizio l'ex capo del Sismi Nicolò Pollari", La Repubblica, 16 febbraio 2007.
  16. ↑ Jeff Stein, "Italian Police Name CIA Contacts in Kidnap Trial," Congressional Quarterly Politics, July 10, 2008, found at CQ Politics website. Accessed May 14, 2009.
  17. 1 2 Indy Bay website. Accessed May 14, 2009.
  18. ↑ "DE SOUSA SABRINA". NameBase. Archived from the original on 2012-01-17. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  19. ↑ State Watch.org website, citing Information from the prosecutor's office (in Italian). Accessed May 14, 2009.
  20. ↑ Security Law Brief, May 14, 2009, found at Security Law Brief website. Accessed May 14, 2009.
  21. ↑ Stephen Grey, Ghost plane: the true story of the CIA torture program, p. 349, fn. 45, (Macmillan, 2006) ISBN 978-0-312-36023-8 found at Google Books. Accessed May 14, 2009.
  22. ↑ "Sabrina De Sousa, Ex-CIA Whistleblower, Blames Bush For Defamation (VIDEO)". Huffington Post. 2013-07-31.
  23. 1 2 "Former CIA operative detained in Portugal over kidnapping of cleric". The Guardian. October 8, 2015. Retrieved October 10, 2015.
  24. 1 2 3 4 Minder, Raphael (15 January 2016). "Portugal to Extradite Ex-C.I.A. Agent to Italy in Rendition Case". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  25. ↑ "Supremo rejeita recurso contra extradição de ex-agente da CIA detida em Lisboa".
  26. ↑ "Mumbai-born to Mata Hari: Sabrina de Sousa's story".
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