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Convicted CIA Spy Says "We Broke the Law"

Sabrina deSousa Says U.S. "Betrayed" Her and Others Found Guilty in Kidnapping of Muslim Cleric in Italy

Former CIA officer Sabrina deSousa

By Matthew Cole, Avni Patel, and Brian Ross / ABC

One of the 23 Americans convicted today by an Italian court says the United States "broke the law" in the CIA kidnapping of a Muslim cleric Abu Omar in Milan in 2003. Former CIA officer Sabrina deSousa says US abandoned her Former CIA intelligence officer Sabrina deSousa says the US "abandoned and betrayed" her and the others who were put on trial for the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric Abu Omar in Milan in 2003.

"And we are paying for the mistakes right now, whoever authorized and approved this," said former CIA officer Sabrina deSousa in an interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson.

DeSousa says the U.S. "abandoned and betrayed" her and the others who were put on trial for the kidnapping. She was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.

Representative Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), a member of the House Intelligence Committee told ABC News that the trial was a disaster for CIA officers like DeSousa on the frontline.

"I think these people have been put out there. They've been hung out to dry. They're taking the fall potentially for a decision that was made by their superiors in our agencies. It's the wrong place to go."

Italian prosecutors said deSousa was a CIA officer who helped organized the kidnapping using her diplomat cover at the U.S. Consulate in Milan. Several former U.S. intelligence officials confirm to ABC News deSousa's role in the operation.

Without confirming her CIA role, deSousa said her status as a State Department diplomat should have protected her, but that the U.S. refused to invoke diplomatic immunity.

"Everything I did was approved back in Washington," she said. deSousa says she was on a ski trip on the actual day of the kidnapping.

The ruling by the Italian court was seen as landmark repudiation of the U.S. policy of rendition, involving the capture of suspected terrorists taken to secret locations for interrogation.

"It's clear that the kidnapping of Abu Omar was a great mistake," said Italian prosecutor Armando Spataro, who led the five-year long investigation. "It did serious damage in fighting terrorists because we don't need torture, we don't need renditions, we don't need secret prisons."

The former CIA station chief in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison. deSousa and twenty-two others received five-year sentences.