'Justice is done' after Cucchi brutality convictions upheld

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 5 - Italy's supreme Court of Cassation on Monday definitively upheld the convictions of two Carabinieri police officers for the involuntary homicide of Stefano Cucchi, a young Roman draughtsman who died in custody in 2009 after being the victim of brutality.
    Alessio Di Bernardo and Raffaele D'Alessandro will each have to serve terms of 12 years for beating Cucchi so badly that it led to his subsequent death in hospital after he was picked up for a minor drugs offence.
    The supreme court trimmed the sentences down by one year with respect to the rulings at the appeal-court level.
    "At this point we can say that justice has been done with respect to those who took him away from us," said Cucchi's sister Ilaria Cucchi, who campaigned long and tirelessly to get to the truth amid a police cover-up about the death.
    The Carabinieri police force issued an apology to the Cucchi family and expressed sorrow about the officers' behaviour, saying it was "in contrast with our values and principles".
    Di Bernardo turned himself in early on Tuesday in the southern city of Isernia in order to start his term. (ANSA).