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News from Italy |
MAN SENTENCED FOR IMMIGRANT ATTACK |
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3/6/2009
- An Italian man who was accused of a racist attack against Bangladeshi immigrants has received a one-year suspended sentence and will serve no time in prison for the crime. According to Italian media reports 20-year-old Ivan Balzanella was sentenced for making threats and drug possession charges.
However, the prosecutor dropped additional racism charges, a move backed by public prosecutor Erminio Amelio and court president Paolo de Fiore, who said the incident was related to drug trafficking and a territorial dispute.
Amelio also said that Balzanella had many immigrant friends, especially in the neighbourhood where he lives.
"They were the ones who attacked me," said Balzanella told Italian daily, Corriere della Sera. "I am not a racist, my room is full of anti-fascist stickers."
Balzanella plans to appeal his one-year suspended sentence.
Following the attack in February, Italian media reports claimed that Balzanella and two others tried to set alight three teenage migrants with a spray can and a lighter using it as a flame-thrower in what was described by the police as a racist attack.
Balzanella was arrested by police and accused of making threats and attempting to carry out racially motivated violence. The attack took place in the multi-ethnic Esquiline neighbourhood in central Rome.
Balzanella had reportedly 'warned' the same migrants last November to leave the area.
In February, the alleged attacker returned, with two others. The Bangladeshi migrants quickly called the police, but Balzanella fled.
"Go away immigrants or I will burn you," Balzanella reportedly told the migrants.
One of the victims of the attack, described only by his first name, Naimal, told an Italian newspaper that Balzanella also tried to attack them with a fork. But police arrived and intervened.
When Balzanella was arrested, he reportedly told police, "You are not supposed to take me, you are supposed to arrest those immigrants."
Balzanella - who had been previously arrested in December for racially motivated attacks - was released. He claimed he had been attacked by the Bangladeshi migrants.
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Fonte: Adnkronos International
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