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.
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