US Marine's Murder Trial In 'Friendly Fire' Shooting Opens In Rome

Taken from Yahoo News, Apr 17, 2007
BY by Gina Doggett, Associated Free Press

ROME (AFP) - US marine Mario Lozano went on trial in absentia in Rome on Tuesday for shooting dead a high-ranking Italian military intelligence officer in a "friendly fire" case that is far from settled in the minds of many Italians.

The trial was adjourned for technical reasons, at the request of both sides, to May 14.

Lozano's lawyer Alberto Biffani asserted that his client was unaware of the proceedings. The plaintiffs' lawyer, Alessandro Gamberini, said for his part that procedures to seek damages from Donald Rumsfeld, who was US defence secretary at the time of the incident, were not yet complete.

Lozano, 37, is charged with voluntary homicide in the death of Nicola Calipari, as well as two counts of intent to kill Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and Andrea Carpani, a secret service agent who was driving the car fired on by Lozano.

Both Sgrena and Carpani were wounded in the shooting at a mobile checkpoint on the Baghdad airport road on March 4, 2005.

The US military exoneration of Lozano has never been accepted by the Italian government, the source of severe strain between Washington and Rome.

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Tuesday that he expected a verdict in the case to "establish how the events occurred and who carries responsibility for what happened," the ANSA news agency reported.

Speaking to Italian journalists while on a visit to Algiers, D'Alema said "all Italian citizens (want) the truth to be ascertained with this trial."

Biffani hailed the adjournment of the trial, which is being held at a maximum security prison on the outskirts of Rome, saying it would "give the defence precious time to study the case."

Public prosecutor Franco Ionta said repeated efforts had been made to notify Lozano of the trial.

"The only response was that for the United States the case is closed," he said, adding, however: "It's unthinkable that Lozano was unaware of the trial."

Franco Coppi, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, accused Lozano of "arrogance" and dismissed the idea that the defendant was unaware of the proceedings as "an insult." Sgrena, speaking to AFP after the hearing, called the assertion "ridiculous."

Coppi questioned how an accused could "remember to name a defence lawyer at the last moment."

A state-appointed lawyer was initially assigned to Lozano, but he retained Biffani early this month.

Lozano, who was indicted in February, broke two years of public silence this month when he told the New York Post that the Italians' vehicle was moving at speed towards his patrol.

"If you hesitate, you come home in a box. ... I did what any soldier would do in my position,"

Lozano told the newspaper. "You have a warning line, you have a danger line, and you have a kill line. Anyone inside 100 metres (109 yards) is already in the danger zone ... and you've got to take them out."

Sgrena alleges that Lozano has been ordered to lie about the chain of events.

The incident occurred near Baghdad airport shortly after Calipari negotiated the handover of Sgrena from kidnappers who had held her for a month in Iraq, where the pro-US government of Silvio Berlusconi had contributed troops to the US-led coalition despite overwhelming opposition at home.

Both sides agree that Lozano fired on the car carrying Calipari and Sgrena with Carpani at the wheel.

Italian ballistics experts concluded that Carpani was driving at a normal speed and that the US unit gave no warnings before opening fire. The Italian probe also found that there were no signposts warning of the checkpoint.

The US military insists that Lozano followed the rules of engagement and that the Italians' car was speeding towards his unit when he opened fire.

The hearing was attended by Calipari's widow Rosa, elected to the Senate last April, and by Sgrena, who told AFP: "The fact that Lozano hired the lawyer is a first recognition that there is a trial."

Both Rosa Calipari and Sgrena are suing for damages.

The case is one of several defence-related issues straining bilateral ties.

An Italian judge in February ordered 26 Americans to stand trial for the kidnapping of Osama Mustafa Hassan, better known as Abu Omar, on a Milan street on February 17, 2003. He was taken to a high-security prison outside Cairo where he says he was tortured.

Still fresh in many Italians' minds is a 1998 incident in which a low-flying US Marines plane cut an Italian ski lift cable, killing 20 people. The United States cleared the pilot of manslaughter.