An Italian judge sentenced 23 Americans to up to eight years in prison on Wednesday for the abduction of a Muslim cleric, in a symbolic condemnation of the CIA "rendition" flights used by the former U.S. government.The Americans were all tried in absentia because the United States refused to extradite them but the sentence, the first of its kind, was welcomed by campaigners who have long complained that the renditions policy violated basic human rights."This decision sends a clear message to all governments that even in the fight against terrorism you can't forsake the basic rights of our democracies," said prosecutor Armando Spataro.