Italian police allegedly urged death for American suspects

Several members of Italy’s Carabinieri paramilitary police force called for the deaths or beatings of two American teenagers who were arrested in the hours after an officer’s July 2019 slaying

ROME -- Several members of Italy's Carabinieri paramilitary police force called for the deaths or beatings of two American teenagers who were arrested in the hours after an officer's slaying, Italian media reported Wednesday.

A Carabinieri officer has been charged with using unjustified measures in handling a suspect for allegedly blindfolding one of the teens illegally as he awaited questioning at a police station. Phone messaging chats involving several Carabinieri hours after the July 2019 arrests of the young tourists were introduced as evidence at the officer's trial on Wednesday.

Gabriel Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder, respectively 18 and 19 at the time of the slaying in Rome, were convicted last year of murder and given Italy’s stiffest punishment – life imprisonment. An appeals trial for the two is scheduled to start in Rome on Thursday.

Carabinieri Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega, 35, was stabbed 11 times by Elder, and his police partner was slightly injured in a scuffle with both defendants on a street near their hotel where the Americans were staying while on summer holiday.