"In the beginning, the guards took off all of my clothes, threatened to rape me, gave me shocks with an electric wand. One had my private parts and he squeezed them if I didn't speak," Nasr wrote, according to excerpts published in Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The details of the account were confirmed to Reuters by three legal sources who have seen the document. But the sources could not vouch for the precise wording in Corriere following its translation from the original Arabic.

Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, mentioned nicknames guards used for their instruments of torture, like "The Bride" and "The Mattress."

"They stretched me out on a iron door that they call 'The Bride'. Here I got kicked, electric shock ... meanwhile they threw cold water at me," he wrote.

"The Mattress" was equally brutal, according to the account. Hands and feet bound, Nasr sat on a soaking wet mattress that was rigged to an electric current. One torturer would perch on top of him in a wooden chair while the other applied the shocks.

"I was always scared and often passed out," he said.

The U.S. government acknowledges secret transfers of terrorism suspects to third countries, but denies torturing suspects or handing them to countries that do.

Nasr, who Italian investigators suspect has ties to al Qaeda and recruited militants for Iraq, said once in Egyptian custody an official there offered to free him if he "collaborated" with them, presumably as an informant. Nasr refused.

The decision to enter Nasr's account of the abuses as evidence in the case, along with other documents, delays the Milan prosecutors' ability to request indictments by another three weeks, a well-placed judicial source said.

Prosecutors have already issued preventative arrest warrants against 26 Americans and suspect that prominent Italian spies, including Sismi chief Nicolo Pollari, helped them kidnap Nasr.

If a judge authorizes a trial, it would be the first criminal prosecution anywhere in the world for "renditions," one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's global war on terrorism.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/10/AR2006111000755.html