Abstract

13 years after the abduction of Osama Mustafa Nasr (Abu Omar) in Milan by CIA operatives, the European Court of Human Rights rules that Italy violated the prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment, the prohibition of arbitrary detention, the right to private and family life and the right to access to court, and orders the respondent government to pay damages in compensation to both Abu Omar and his wife, Nabila Ghali. In doing so, the Court deals with the sensitive matter of State secret, ruling that the Italian government invocation of the above mentioned privilege was meant to prevent the conviction of five SISMI (the Italian military secret service) operatives; yet it avoids taking a stance on the broader issue of the consistency of State secret with the European Convention of Human Rights. This article attempts to summarize the long legal procedure that followed the extraordinary rendition of Abu Omar, and to question whether the ECHR judgement has answered some of the issues raised by the Italian Supreme Court. [...]