Ex-CIA spy freed in Portugal, avoids extradition over kidnapping

A former CIA officer convicted of involvement in the 2003 kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric in Italy was released by authorities in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday after winning a last-minute reprieve from extradition.

Sabrina de Sousa, a dual U.S.-Portuguese citizen, was waiting at Lisbon airport to be flown to Italy early on Wednesday when word came she was to be released, after Italy’s president granted her a partial pardon.

“I’m happy with how this worked out here after two years of having this troubling my mind,” a smiling de Sousa told reporters as she left the Judiciary Police headquarters. “But this is not over yet, as I still have the process in Italy, and we have to see how it goes.”

In a later telephone interview with Reuters, de Sousa said her Italian lawyer had applied for her to perform three years of community service in Italy as an alternative to jail.

De Sousa said the Trump administration did “an excellent job” of negotiating her partial pardon with Italy. But she noted that she still spent 10 days in a Portuguese prison, the only current or former CIA officer to be jailed in connection with the agency’s now defunct rendition and interrogation program.

Read the whole story from Reuters.