Italy tries US soldier in Calipari affair

CounterVortex

A US soldier has today been put on trial in absentia, accused of shooting dead the Italian intelligence operative Nicola Calipari. Mario Lozano [of the 69th infantry regiment] opened fire on a vehicle carrying Calipari and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena [of the communist Il Manifesto], at a checkpoint near Baghdad Airport, Iraq, in March 2005. The US military officially exonerated Lozano of the killing. [London Times, April 17]

From Madrid11.net Security Briefs, April 17

See our last post on Iraq, Italy and the Calipari affair.

  1. Italian court dismisses case against US soldier
    From Newsday, Oct. 26:

    A judge in Rome threw out Italy’s case against a U.S. guardsman charged in the 2005 fatal shooting of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq, siding Thursday with the defense argument that Italy had no jurisdiction.

    Spc. Mario Lozano, 38, a former member of The Fighting 69th Infantry Regiment based in Manhattan, was on trial in absentia on charges of murder and attempted murder for the shooting of Nicola Calipari, hailed as a hero by Italians for his role in the rescue of a kidnapped Italian journalist…

    Gasps arose in the courtroom as lead judge Angelo Gargani read out the decision. Prosecutor Pietro Saviotti said he would decide whether to appeal the ruling after the court makes its reasoning public, which will happen within 60 days.

    1. Nicola Calipari
      Dear Bill,
      first of all sorry for my bad english.
      Nicola Calipari is a real hero as He paid with his life for the life of another person. To find one culpable is a false problem, even if it can’t be solve with the theory of fatality or “friends fire”, horrid neologism in any way to justify anything. What is unaceptable in this story is the attitude of American’s political and militar autorithies that take advantage of the weakness of the Italian allies to don’t collaborate and deny any responsability. I live in Italy and I’ve just ended to read your article about the Indigenas Nasa in Colombia (very precious as I’m anthropologist and I begin to investigate their proyect first from Italy and then down there)and you’ve underlined the Statal Military involvement in this absurd crime. This is too an absurd crime for the italians, and has been very bad runned. But like the Nasa, we’re civil people. Perhaps it will be enough that Usa government’s apologize for it to make honor to Nicola, a great little agent and man, died for a cause that is of yourselves and not of himself