Brothers get life, 28 yrs for killing Cape Verdian chef

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 14 - Two brothers got life and 28 years in prison in prison Friday for kicking to death a 21-year-old Cape-Verdian-Italian chef near Rome in September 2020.
    Marco Bianchi saw his life term upheld on appeal while Gabriele had his cut from life to 28 years after attenuating circumstances were recognised.
    Twenty-something mixed martial art experts Marco and Gabriele Bianchi were found guilty of the savage beating of Willy Monteiro Duarte at Colleferro after he intervened to try to stop a fight.
    "The sentences will not give us Willy back. I hope that these boys appreciate the fact that they are alive with a family that can see them and hear their voice. All we have left of Willy is a photograph and his voice is just a distant memory, said Duarte's mother Lucia.
    "I hope that the Bianchi brothers learn to respect others and to ensure that another family does not experience what we experienced", she added.
    Duarte, who became a symbol of the youth street violence sweeping Italy, was beaten to death on September 6, 2020 after stepping in to defend a friend.
    In October 2020 President Sergio Mattarella awarded one of Italy's top honours, the gold medal, posthumously to Duarte and another person also recently killed while trying to help others, 51-year-old priest Father Roberto Malgesini.
    Malgesini, who worked to help the poor and marginalised, was stabbed to death in central Como by a homeless migrant with mental-health problems.
    Duarte's brutal murder sparked calls for police to crack down on youth street violence, after a spate of other episodes.
    Among the responses was the 'Willy DASPO ban', which carries penalties of stiff fines and jail terms between six months and two years.
    Youth street fights are becoming more common in Italy.
    The Italian media has increasingly focused on street gangs linked to rappers, some of them second-generation North African immigrants. (ANSA).