Enlarge image
Defendants in the courtroom
Photo: Gregorio Borgia / AP
The verdict was pronounced in a sensational criminal case in Italy.
A Roman court found two US students guilty of the murder of a police officer.
The men between the ages of 20 and 21 are to be sent to prison for life.
The case had shaken Italy and also preoccupied politics.
Numerous people attended the funeral, which was televised live.
According to the court, the two young men from California killed the 35-year-old police officer Mario Rega Cerciello in Rome with eleven stab wounds in July 2019.
They had confessed to the fact.
The then 18 and 19 year old tourists were on vacation in Rome.
They said they wanted to buy drugs in the Trastevere nightlife district a few hours before the incident.
Instead of cocaine, however, they would have been given a headache pill from a dealer.
Before either of the accused could confront the dealer, the police showed up, the prosecutor said.
One of the two stole the dealer's backpack before everyone involved fled.
According to the indictment, the defendants arranged a meeting with the dealer to exchange the backpack with the cell phone in it for the money they lost in the deal.
The dealer went to the police, according to Italian media reports.
Two plainclothes policemen appeared at the second arranged meeting: the future victim Cerciello and a colleague.
Dark, deserted street
According to the Americans, the meeting took place in a dark, almost deserted street near their hotel.
When the plainclothes police showed up, they would have thought they were thugs or mafiosi.
One of the students testified that there had been a scuffle.
Cerciello brought him to the ground and he feared that he would be strangled by the police officer.
He then pulled his knife and stabbed him so as not to be killed.
Both students said they acted in self-defense because they did not know the men were plainclothes police.
According to the indictment, the then 19-year-old stabbed Cerciello eleven times.
The court did not follow the self-defense argument.
Enlarge image
Crime scene in Rome (archive image)
Photo: Angelo Carconi / ANSA / AP
There had been numerous inconsistencies and contradictions in the process.
The two students testified that the police officers did not identify themselves as police officers.
The colleague of the killed man, on the other hand, said that they had introduced themselves that way.
However, Cerciello's partner also gave false information.
He initially stated that he and Cerciello were armed.
However, the investigation revealed that, contrary to the regulations, both police officers did not carry weapons.
According to the indictment, only one of the now convicted men stabbed Cerciello.
However, under Italian criminal law, the accomplice can also be convicted of murder, even if he was only indirectly involved in the crime.
According to the court, the second student helped his buddy hide the knife in the hotel and forged the fateful plan to return the backpack.
"Military style" knife
The students were also convicted of attempted extortion, assault and resisting law enforcement officers.
Since one of the two carried a "military style" knife with a 18 centimeter long blade "for no good reason", he was convicted of violating gun law.
The case had also preoccupied Italian politics.
The then Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had tweeted that the person responsible would have to pay "for the rest of his life in prison with forced labor."
Forced labor, however, is not provided in Italy's prisons.
According to the Italian Criminal Code, a person convicted of life imprisonment can be released on probation after 21 years if well behaved.
The defense lawyers announced that they would appeal the judgment.
The policeman's widow, Rosa Maria Esilio, spoke to journalists in tears after the verdict was announced.
"Mario won't bring that back to me," she said outside the courtroom.
She spoke of a "long and painful process".
jpz / AFP / AP / Reuters
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/Z45E6KV7VJGUXAKJWH7VA4NJSE.jpg)
