No delay in Italian rendition trial

MILAN, Italy, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- A judge in Italy who has been sued by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has refused to suspend the trial over an alleged CIA abduction.

Niccolo Pollari, former head of Italian military intelligence, requested the delay until Berlusconi's suit against Judge Oscar Magi has been resolved, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Nine Italian officials and intelligence agents and 26 U.S. CIA agents are charged with illegally kidnapping a Muslim cleric in Milan. Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr was sent to Egypt in the procedure known as extraordinary rendition.

The U.S. agents are being tried in absentia.

Milan Prosecutor Armando Spataro argued against any delay, saying the trial is the first to examine extraordinary rendition.

''We have a trial that the Council of Europe and the European Parliament want us to carry out,'' Spataro said.

The Council of Europe has called the case "a perfect example of rendition." Nasr was allegedly kidnapped on the street, flown to the U.S. base in Ramstein, Germany, on a private jet belonging to the Boston Red Sox and then transferred to Egyptian custody.