Rome (AFP) - Two US tourists convicted of the stabbing death of an Italian police officer in 2019 began their appeal Thursday, hoping to reduce life sentences the defence has characterised as excessive.
Finnegan Elder, 22, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, were convicted in May 2021 by a Rome court for the death of police officer Mario Cerciello Rega during a late-night encounter in July 2019 while the two were on summer holiday.
Elder admitted to stabbing Cerciello with an 11-inch camping knife on a dark Rome street in a crime that horrified Italy and led to an outpouring of public grief for the newlywed officer, hailed as a national hero.
But the case, which revealed multiple examples of police error, offered up two very different versions about what happened just before the killing, and hinged on whether the two then-teenagers knew that Cerciello and his partner -- the prosecution's star witness Andrea Varriale -- were police.
On Thursday, Deputy Prosecutor Vincenzo Saveriano called for the appeals court to uphold the life sentence for Elder, calling the crime an act "of extreme cruelty".
But he asked to lower to 24 years the sentence of Natale-Hjorth, who did not handle the murder weapon during the attack and instead scuffled with Varriale.
Lawyers for both men have sharply criticised the life sentences -- Italy's stiffest penalty -- saying they are harsher than many given for premeditated killings by mafia members.
The opening day of the appeal -- which concerns both the conviction and sentence -- was overshadowed, however, by a new scandal over police conduct related to the Americans' arrest.
Evidence introduced in a trial this week against an officer who blindfolded Natale-Hjorth in custody revealed a series of group chat messages written by police officers calling for rough justice for Cerciello's killers, including one suggesting "We should dissolve them in acid".
The photograph of the handcuffed, blindfolded teenager sparked widespread criticism when it was published in 2019, and rekindled accusations of excessive force by police in Italy.
- Credibility -
The evening of the attack began with a botched attempt by the Americans to buy drugs.They later went to meet someone they expected to be a go-between on the failed deal -- but police showed up instead.
Varriale testified during the trial that the two teens set upon him and Cerciello immediately after the officers presented themselves as police and showed their badges, an account the defendants deny.
On Thursday, Saveriano acknowledged that Varriale had admitting lying following the attack when he said he had been armed, when he was not.
But "it's a big leap" to be considered unreliable, the prosecutor said, defending the credibility of Varriale, which was attacked by the defence during trial.
During the course of the appeal, defence lawyers will seek to show that the court ignored substantial evidence that the teenagers' version of events was correct, and incidents of ignored protocol by police the night of the attack.
They will also point to a court document that blasted the defence for having "mocked the conduct of the victims" during trial as evidence of the court's bias towards law enforcement.
In related cases, three prosecution witnesses are currently being prosecuted for perjury.
The appeal, which continues on February 17, could wrap up by mid-March.
