Italian court drops murder case against US soldier

Thu Oct 25, 2007 5:35pm EDT

(Adds reaction by Mario Lozano)

By Phil Stewart

ROME, Oct 25 (Reuters) - An Italian court on Thursday dropped a murder trial against a U.S. soldier who killed an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq for lack of jurisdiction, removing a thorn from relations between Rome and Washington.

U.S. soldier Mario Lozano, 38, was being tried in absentia for shooting Italian agent Nicola Calipari at a checkpoint outside Baghdad airport in 2005. Calipari had been escorting a newly freed Italian hostage out of Iraq.

"I feel like there's a weight off my shoulders," Lozano told Reuters. "I could sleep easier now even though I have to still live with the fact I was involved in (taking) an innocent man's life."

The Pentagon also welcomed the decision, saying it believed the case should never have gone to court in the first place.

But the ruling drew howls of protest from Italy's political left on Wednesday, with lawmakers accusing the Rome court of dishonoring the memory of a national hero.

Lozano, who was a gunner at a checkpoint on the road to Baghdad airport, says he opened fire on a car carrying Calipari and freed journalist Giuliana Sgrena after the driver ignored warning shots and refused to stop.

Washington refused to hand Lozano over for trial.

"The court has granted our request on lack of jurisdiction so we win this case," said Lozano's Italian defence lawyer Alberto Biffani, hired by the U.S. Department of Defense. "Obviously the public prosecutor can decide to appeal."

Lozano has also blamed the Italian journalist whose release Calipari had just secured before he was shot for creating such a dangerous situation.

"If it wasn't for Sgrena, the situation would not have happened," Lozano said. "She went out there, she wanted to mingle with the terrorists and all that. ... She knows that if she is going to talk to terrorists, she knows there is a 99 percent chance she will get caught. ... It's her fault that this is happening -- not my fault."

Italian prosecutors had also sought to convict Lozano for the attempted murder of the journalist, who was wounded in the shooting. She told reporters at the court house that the decision not to try Lozano was "absolutely incomprehensible."

"It's been hard because the Americans threw up many obstacles ... ," she said. "But for us Italians to renounce what we could have done to learn the truth is a denial of Italian sovereignty and I find that very serious."

The agent's widow, Rosa Calipari, who was elected to the Senate following his death, declined comment but her lawyer called the ruling "surprising."

"It's a wrong and unjust decision," said Sen. Massimo Brutti, who suggested the parliament's intelligence oversight committee, of which he is deputy chairman, examine the case.

The court will not make public the reasoning behind the decision for up to two months, but Biffani said his arguments included that "Mr Lozano was part of the United States armed forces" and as such had "immunity."

The case had strained relations between Washington and Rome, which has described the killing as an accident but has also criticized the U.S. military for leaving inexperienced troops at a poorly set-up roadblock.

"This removes one bone of contention with the United States," said James Walston at the American University of Rome.

But he said others remained, including the ongoing trial in absentia of 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, whom Italian prosecutors accuse of kidnapping a terrorism suspect in Milan and flying him to Egypt. The Muslim cleric says he was tortured there during interrogation.

That trial resumes in Milan on Oct. 31. (Additional reporting by Jennifer Ablan in New York and Andrew Gray in Washington)





Comments (0)
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.