2 Carabinieri get 12 yrs for Cucchi

(ANSA) - Rome, November 14 - Two Carabinieri were sentenced to 12 years in jail Thursday for involuntary homicide in the 2009 death of Rome draughtsman Stefano Cucchi.
    Alessio Di Bernardo and Raffaele D'Alessandro were also convicted of abuse of authority.
    A defendant who turned witness and gave evidence on police brutality, Francesco Tedesco, was cleared of involuntary homicide but got two and a half years for making false statements.
    "Stefano was killed, we knew that and we've been repeating it for 10 years. Now perhaps he can rest in peace," said his sister Ilaria, who has campaigned tirelessly for the truth in the case in the face of police obstruction and, until recently, omerta.
    A visibly moved Carabiniere officer, who was not among those on trial, kissed Ilaria's hand after the verdict.
    "I did it because justice has finally been done after all these years," she said before escorting Cucchi's parents out of the courtroom in Rebibbia prison.
    Far-right League party leader and former interior minister Matteo Salvini said "if someone used violence, he was wrong and will pay. This shows that drugs are always bad for you and, in any case, I fight drugs in all piazzas". A Carabinieri warrant officer and former station commander, Roberto Mandolini, was sentenced to three years and eight months for making false statements and was acquitted of calumny after the charge was downgraded to false testimony.
    Carabiniere officer Vincenzo Nicolardi was acquitted of calumny.
    Earlier, a Rome appeals court on Friday acquitted one doctor and timed out four others for negligent manslaughter in the 2009 death of 31-year-old Cucchi, who was picked up on a minor drugs charge in October 2009 and died in hospital a week later.
    The case, which has been dogged by alleged cover-ups that are subject to a separate probe, was bogged down for years before a Carabiniere turned informant.