A former CIA operative detained in Panama this week at the request of Italian authorities over his conviction in the 2003 kidnapping of Muslim cleric in Milan was released on Friday morning and was aboard a flight to the United States, U.S. officials said.
Robert Seldon Lady’s release from Panama appeared to avert the possibility that he would be extradited to Italy, where he faces a sentence of up to nine years in prison for his role in the CIA capture of a terrorism suspect who was secretly snatched off a street in Milan and transported to Egypt.
“It’s our understanding that he’s on a plane en route to the United States right now,” a senior Obama administration official said. It was not immediately clear what steps the United States had taken to secure Lady’s release.
The outcome brought a sudden close to a brief diplomatic drama that began Wednesday when Lady was detained by border officials as he entered Panama.
Lady was among 23 U.S. government employees — most of whom worked for the CIA — who were convicted in a 2005 case that became a source of embarrassment for the agency. The case also called attention to the controversial practice known as “extraordinary rendition,” in which terrorism suspects secretly captured in the years following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were delivered to governments suspected of engaging in torture.
