Abu Omar says Sabrina De Sousa, who faces extradition to Italy, is a scapegoat and the real culprits are more senior officials 
 
 The radical Egyptian cleric who was kidnapped in Milan by the CIA in 2003 has come to the defence of a former CIA officer convicted for her alleged role in his extraordinary rendition. De Sousa, a 60-year-old dual American and Portuguese citizen, faces a four-year prison sentence and is due to be extradited from Portugal on 4 May. The radical imam said this April in an interview with The Guardian that de Sousa and her colleagues were “scapegoats” and should not be held accountable for his abduction or torture. The radical cleric, who had been granted political asylum in Italy in 2001 and was already the subject of a terrorism investigation by other Italian officials, leading to his eventual conviction in absentia, was then transported to Cairo via Germany, where he was allegedly imprisoned, interrogated and tortured. Last month a representative for the State Department declined to comment on de Sousa’s predicament as well, saying, “We don’t talk about extradition cases.” 
 
 ABC News’ Lee Ferran contributed to this report. I’ve been in prison before, and I don’t wish for the same to happen to her, either as a friend or a foe. “The Obama administration inherited this debacle and cannot publicly support what the CIA did in Milan. De Sousa in the ABC News interview said she had long wished to respond to Francis' comments on the rendition, detention and interrogation program by CIA, "and since my future is uncertain, I am doing it now.” 
 
 The CIA declined to comment for this report. But one official told the Guardian that De Sousa had made a decision to break ties with the government when she moved to sue the US for not invoking diplomatic immunity to help her.
– A former CIA officer says she's days away from being sent to an Italian prison and blames the US government for not doing more to help her, ABC News reports. In 2003, the CIA abducted Egyptian cleric and terror suspect Osama Mustafa Hassan Nasr from Milan, Italy, under its "extraordinary rendition" program. Nasr says he was transferred to Egypt, where he was tortured. At the time, Sabrina de Sousa was working undercover for the CIA in Italy but tells NPR she was 150 miles away on a ski trip with her son during the week Nasr was kidnapped. Nevertheless, de Sousa was one of 26 Americans convicted of violating Italian law by abducting Nasr. She faces four years in prison, the Guardian reports. De Sousa has been living in Portugal and fighting extradition—without any apparent help from the US government. "The US government won't intervene because they don't want me implicating anyone else as I try to counter the charges against me," de Sousa tells ABC. She says she feels "abandoned and betrayed" by her own country. De Sousa appealed her extradition to Portugal's highest court but lost that appeal Wednesday. She believes her next stop is an Italian prison and has asked Pope Francis for help. In a strange twist, while the US government isn't speaking up for de Sousa, the man she is said to have helped kidnap is. “The US administration sacrificed them," Nasr tells the Guardian. "All of those higher up in the hierarchy are enjoying their immunity." He says de Sousa is a "scapegoat." So far, none of the 26 Americans convicted by Italy have seen jail time.