Two dozen Americans -- most thought to work for the CIA -- were sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday by an Italian court for their role in the seizing of a suspected terrorist off the streets of Milan in 2003, Italian media reported.
They did not appear for trial and are not in custody, but the ruling could effectively make them international fugitives.
The trial was the first to deal with a practice that human rights groups call "extraordinary rendition," and they say the United States has often sent suspects to countries that practice torture.
Washington acknowledges making secret "rendition" transfers of terrorism suspects between countries but denies using torture or handing suspects over to countries that do.
The case centered on the extraordinary rendition of a Muslim cleric, Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr, or Abu Omar.
He was transferred to Egypt and tortured, he says. He was suspected of recruiting men to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan and was under heavy surveillance by Italy's intelligence agency.
Cases were dismissed against the man assumed to be the CIA station chief in Rome at the time on the grounds that he had diplomatic immunity from prosecution and against the heads of Italy's intelligence service because of state secrecy provisions.
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