Appeal Court in Rome Requests Sentences for American Citizens in Carabiniere's Murder

The public prosecutor at the Rome Court of Appeals has requested a sentence of 23 years and 9 months for Lee Elder Finnegan and 23 years for Gabriele Natale Hjorth, the two American citizens accused of the murder of Vice Brigadier of the Carabinieri, Mario Cerciello Rega, which occurred in Rome in July 2019. The Cassation Court justifies the Americans: 'They did not understand Italian'. For Cerciello, sentences reduced for Elder and Hjorth: 24 and 22 years. In the first instance, they had been sentenced to life imprisonment. For the two, the Cassation had ordered a new second-degree trial. In particular, the Supreme Judges had annulled for Elder the sentence to 24 years with referral on the aggravating circumstances and on the existence of the crime of resistance to a public official. For Hjorth, who had been sentenced to 22 years, the annulment with referral concerns the accusation of complicity in murder.