Mayor, two councillors convicted for apology of Fascism

(ANSA) - Rome, November 7 - A court in Tivoli has sentenced Affile Mayor Ercole Viri and two town councillors, Giampiero Frosoni and Lorenzo Peperoni respectively to eight and six months in prison, for apology of Fascism in relation to the construction of a mausoleum dedicated to a top-ranking World War II Fascist official, Rodolfo Graziani, National partisans' association ANPI said on Tuesday.
    The prosecution had asked for a two-year sentence to be handed down against Viri and a 19-month sentence to be handed down against Frosoni and Peperoni, and for the monument to be requisitioned. It is to appeal against the ruling. Graziani, a defence minister of the Italian Social Republic from 1943-1945 who is considered responsible for atrocities during Fascist campaigns in North Africa, spent many years in Affile, near Rome, before his death in 1955.
    The mausoleum was built using regional funds and inaugurated in 2012.
    Graffiti subsequently appeared on its walls, listing Graziani's alleged war crimes.
    Apology of Fascism is a crime in Italy.