Further Italian Madness

Last evening we had a couple of Italian friends round.  He (we'll call him Luigi) works as a policeman (Polizia di Stato) on the local autostrada.

4 years ago he and his colleague spotted a suspicious car and decided to pull it over.  The other car took evasive action and only stopped after a chase and causing damage to the police car Luigi was in.  The car they stopped contained 4 Moroccans.  When they began to search the car they soon found a stash of drugs - at which point the Moroccans decided to leg it.  Luigi and his colleague manged to catch a couple and wrestle them to the ground.  However the Moroccans were younger and stronger and managed to break free.  As they ran away they started shooting at the 2 policemen.

Luigi's colleague drew his pistol and returned fire, killing one of the Moroccans.

Luigi and his colleague's trial starts in September.  They are both being charged with 'culpable homicide' and face a prison term of 25 years.

Apparently, in Italy, a policeman can shoot and kill a suspect only if they have been wounded first.  Unbelievable!

Needless to say Luigi and his wife have not only spent 4 years of misery but are apprehensive about the outcome of the upcoming trial.  And this is a man who was just doing his job to the best of his ability and did not fire the fatal shot.

Sounds mad to me..

The prosecution is "overdoing" it. This can only be judged as legitimate self-defense, particularly because the drug dealers started the shooting. It is most surprising, because Italy has a very sympathetic law on self-defense which covers civilians http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4645228.stm
I think that the policemen will have no problems, but, in any case, it is not a nice thing to go through when you are just doing your job.

It’s happened here (NL) and in the UK. I think these investigations and trials are often more of a formality…if Luigi has nothing to hide, then he’ll hide nothing…