Murder of Italian rifleman: two American tourists sentenced to life imprisonment
The former Minister of the Interior, Matteo Salvini, attended the funeral in Somma Vesuviana, the brigadier's native village, on July 29, 2019. REUTERS / Ciro De Luca
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The crime dates back to July 26, 2019. That evening, a 35-year-old rifleman, Mario Cierciello Rega, was stabbed 11 times by an American he was arresting for a bag theft from a neighborhood near the Vatican.
The young tourist acted with the full participation of his friend, also American.
Arrested and imprisoned for homicide and extortion, they have just been sentenced at first instance to life imprisonment by the Criminal Court of Rome.
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With our correspondent in Rome,
Anne Le Nir
This affair had
moved all of Italy
.
Especially since the rifleman, stabbed with a knife, had just returned from his honeymoon in Madagascar.
Aged 19, the two tourists from San Francisco were arrested the day after the murder in the hotel where they were staying.
Their suitcases were packed and they had a ticket to return the same evening of July 27, 2019 to the United States.
The police had found in their room clothes stained with blood and the knife used to kill Mario Cierciello Rega, who arrested them for the theft of the bag of a small dealer.
He allegedly sold them aspirin powder, passing it off as cocaine.
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To read also
: Italy: arrest of two Americans for the murder of a rifleman
According to the statements of the magistrate, Maria Calabretta, who requires a sentence of life imprisonment for the two Americans, the latter committed "
in full conscience a frightening crime
".
“
And neither their young age, nor the fact that they had a clean criminal record, alleviates the gravity of their actions.
"
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