Dozens charged over violent Ramy-case protests

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 16 - Police have charged 39 people of criminal offences in relation to violence in Rome on Saturday during a protest about the case of Ramy Elgaml, a 19-year-old Italo-Egyptian who died on November 24 in a scooter accident in Milan while being chased by the Carabinieri police.
    Two of the suspects are minors.
    Eight police officers were injured in Saturday's violence in the capital.
    On Sunday Premier Giorgia Meloni condemned the protests.
    "Amid paper bombs, tear gas and assaults, last night in Rome we saw the umpteenth, ignoble episode of disorder and chaos by the usual rioters who took to the streets not to demonstrate for a cause, but purely in a spirit of revenge", the prime minister wrote on social media.
    "It's not possible to use a tragedy to legitimize violence.
    "Our solidarity goes to the police, together with well wishes to the officers who were wounded.
    "We are on your side", wrote Meloni.
    The protests took place amid a probe into whether Carabinieri security officials chasing the scooter carrying Ramy and Fares Bouzidi, a 22-year-old Tunisian who was riding the bike, intentionally rammed into it.
    The accident occurred at the end of an eight-km-long chase that ended at the Corvetto district, which officers said started after the pair drove through a roadblock.
    The officer behind the wheel of the car directly following the scooter and Bouzidi are being probed on involuntary road murder charges while the other Carabinieri officials involved in the chase are being investigated over potentially false claims regarding the accident and for allegedly erasing a witness's video. (ANSA).