Ukrainian guard member cleared of killing Italian

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 9 - A member of the Ukrainian national guard was definitively cleared Thursday of killing an Italian photoreporter in the eastern European country's disputed Donbass region in May 2014.
    Andy Rocchelli, 30, from Pavia was killed by Ukrainian forces on May 24 2014.
    A first instance court sentenced Vitaly Markiv to 24 years in 2019 but an appeals court overturned that verdict and acquitted him in November 2020.
    The acquittal was upheld by the supreme Court of Cassation on Thursday.
    Makiv's defence attorney said the trial "should never have started". (ANSA).