MILAN, Italy, June 8 (UPI) -- A trial related to the controversial U.S. policy of "extraordinary rendition" opened Friday in Italy.
Six Italians and 26 Americans are accused of kidnapping an Egyptian cleric accused of terrorism and sending him for questioning to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr was seized in Milan in 2003.
The rendition policy allows suspects to be transported to countries with fewer human rights protections for questioning.
The Americans, believed to be CIA agents, will be tried in absentia because U.S. officials have said they will not send them to the Milan trial. Italian officials, who say the trial will damage relations between the two countries' intelligence agencies, are trying to get the trial stopped, the BBC reported.
The trial opened Friday hours before U.S. President George Bush was expected to arrive in Italy for meetings with Pope Benedict XVI and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the BBC reported.
