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A court in Rome has sentenced two US students to life imprisonment for the fatal knife attack on a police officer in Italy in the summer of 2019.
Judge Marina Finiti read the verdict on Wednesday in the presence of the widow of the victim, as an AFP reporter reported.
The defense had argued that the young men had acted in self-defense.
The then 18 and 19 year old men were on vacation in the Italian capital.
The tourists met two police officers while trying to buy drugs.
One of them stabbed one of the officers with eleven stab wounds.
His friend fought with the second policeman during the act, but he was charged with the same act under Italian law.
The defendants had confessed and stated that they believed the police officers were attackers.
The case had caused great sympathy with the victim in Italy: The killed 35-year-old police officer Mario Cerciello Rega had only just returned to work after his honeymoon.
Numerous people attended his funeral, which was televised live.
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The policeman's widow, Rosa Maria Esilio, was in tears after the verdict was announced. “Mario won't bring that back to me,” she said to journalists in front of the courtroom. “It was a long and painful process”.