“I will bring the case to Parliament” –

Sentences halved. The magistrates of the capital have returned to rule on the murder of the vice-brigadier of the Carabinieri Mario Cerciello Rega. In the dock in the second proceeding, ordered in March 2023 by the Court of Cassation, there were still the two American citizens Gabriel Natale Hjorth for the complicity in the murder and Finnegan Lee Elder in relation to the aggravating circumstances only and for the charge of resisting a public official (of which he was acquitted). After regarding four hours of deliberation, the magistrates sentenced Elder to 15 years and two months in prison and Hjorth to 11 years and four months in prison. A very different ruling, compared to that of the first appeal trial, in the length of the sentence (24 years for Elder and 22 for Hjorth), which sparked fierce criticism.

“I am outraged by the decision of the judiciary, of the professional and lay judges who reduced the sentence of Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale Hjorth to a few years, who atrociously killed Marshal Cerciello, stabbed to death in Rome on 26 July 2019”, declares the president of the Forza Italia senators Maurizio Gasparri. “First life imprisonment, then a substantial sentence, now a paltry sentence. How can this decision be justified? – reconstructs the blue senator – The feeling of anger of citizens towards justice grows in the face of decisions of this kind. I want to stand with the Cerciello family and the entire Carabinieri, offended by an incredible decision. Taking drugs, buying drugs, killing for futile and abject reasons a servant of the State can lead to such a light sentence? I will bring this issue to Parliament”, promises Gasparri.

The reason is “because the decision, certainly based on the typical quibbles of justice, offends the entire national community, tramples on the dignity of the entire security-defense sector, outrages honest people who would have expected much different decisions. How will these judges who made this decision sleep? Will they not have the remorse of having essentially rewarded those who have cut short the life of a young servant of the institutions? I am astonished, indignant and deeply angry”, thunders Gasparri.