MILAN, ITALY - The wife of an Egyptian cleric taken from a Milan street, allegedly as part of the CIA's extraordinary rendition program, wept Wednesday as she described her husband's alleged torture in an Egyptian jail.

Heavily veiled and speaking through a translator, Ghali Nabila testified in the trial of 26 Americans charged in Italy with kidnapping in the disappearance of Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, in February 2003.

"They put him on a cross; they beat him on the ears and all over his body," she told the court, citing a letter from her husband and conversations with him. "They positioned him on a chair, tied up his hands and his feet, and they gave him electrical shock all over his body, even his genitals."

Nabila, 39, said the torture continued over 14 months.

Earlier, the judge in the case ruled that Premier Silvio Berlusconi must testify. All but one of the Americans are thought to be CIA agents. Several Italians also are charged with kidnapping a terror suspect.

Judge Oscar Magi approved the defense request for Berlusconi's testimony as the case resumed. Magi also ruled that former Premier Romano Prodi and senior officials from both Berlusconi's and Prodi's past governments will be called to testify.

Berlusconi, who has just been elected to a new term, is considered a key witness because he was premier when the cleric disappeared.

In extraordinary rendition, terror suspects are moved from country to country without public legal proceedings.

The CIA has declined to comment on the case.

It was not clear when Berlusconi and the others would testify.

Still pending is a Constitutional Court ruling on the government's request to throw out the indictments against the Americans. The government claims the case was improperly based on classified evidence. A decision is expected when the Constitutional Court next meets, July 8.

The trial in Milan will continue pending the decision.

Berlusconi's testimony had been requested by lawyers for Nicolo Pollari, a former intelligence chief who is one of the defendants in the case.

Pollari hopes the testimony might help prove that he was against the rendition, lawyers said. He could face from one to 10 years in prison if convicted.