Italy: Silvio's court order

Depending on the outcome of events on Wednesday, Italy's Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi could find himself dragged into a kidnap case that is the stuff of a John le Carre plot. 

He has his former spy chief Nicolo Pollari to thank. Lawyers for Pollari said last month they wanted to call Berlusconi -- as well as outgoing premier Romano Prodi -- to testify in connection with the CIA abduction of Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Omar Nasr from Milan in 2003. Pollari, who ran the Italian military intelligence agency SISMI during Berlusconi's previous government, is on trial with 26 Americans for helping the CIA snatch the terrorism suspect in Milan and fly him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.

If Judge Oscar Magi, who has rejected a defence request that the trial be carried out behind closed doors, calls Berlusconi and Prodi as witnesses, they must testify. Pollari, who could face from one to ten years in jail on a kidnapping charge, claims he can only prove he had nothing to do with the abduction if Prodi and Berlusconi make key statements about state secrecy.