Extradition of ex-CIA Spy Cancelled
On Tuesday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella gave a partial pardon to de Sousa, convicted in absentia in Italy for involvement in the kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric there, the president's office said.
"The Milan prosecutor revoked the detention order. The Italian Interpol agents who are here to extradite her have been informed and the extradition is no longer happening," Sabrina de Sousa's lawyer told Reuters.
De Sousa, a dual U.S.-Portuguese citizen who denies involvement in the abduction, was detained by Portuguese police last week.
She is one of 26 people convicted in absentia on charges of snatching Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr from a street in Milan in 2003 and taking him to be questioned in Egypt under the U.S. "extraordinary rendition" program.
The program was one of Washington's most hotly debated responses to the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks in the United States. Nasr, who was on a U.S. list of militant suspects, said he was tortured under interrogation after being transferred to Egypt.
Mattarella said he had taken account of the fact that the United States has stopped the practice of extraordinary renditions, and the need to give de Sousa similar treatment to others convicted of the same offence.
In 2015, Mattarella gave pardons to two other officials convicted in the case.