Suspects in Colleferro beating get house arrest

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 21 - Two suspects in the beating of a 17-year-old boy in Colleferro at the weekend on Wednesday obtained house arrest.
    Lorenzo Farina and Christian Marozza have been charged with the savage beating, which revived memories of the beating death in the same town near Rome last year of a 21-year-old Cape Verdian-Italian cook, Willy Monteiro Duarte, who became a symbol of the youth street violence sweeping Italy.
    Duarte was beaten to death in Colleferro on September 6 after stepping in to defend a friend.
    Duarte's alleged killers, a pair of brothers who are expert mixed martial arts fighters, have been charged with his murder.
    On October 8 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 alleged murder sparked calls for police to crack down on youth street violence, after a spate of other episodes.
    Among the responses was the 'Willy DASPOban', which carries penalties of stiff fines and jail terms between six months and two years.
    Youth street fights are becoming more common in Italy.
    Another big street fight took place in Rome on the night of January 4, when a 29-year-old man was arrested for going and getting a handgun to defend one of the two rival groups.
    In December several youths, some with criminal records and some minors, were identified after a mass street fight involving hundreds of young people on Rome's Pincian Hill on a Saturday night.
    The dust-up, which featured gangs of youths without face masks or with their masks lowered, was reportedly arranged on social media by two girls, Rome daily Il Messaggero reported.
    There was another major confrontation between two rival youth gangs in Gallarate north of Milan, also in January.
    At least 100 youths took part, some of them wielding sticks and chains.
    MIlan minors' prosecutor Ciro Cascone said the episode was a "full-blown brawl that verged on urban guerilla warfare".
    A turf war and jealousy spurred by a visit to two local girls sparked the street fight in central Gallarate for which the youths have now been arrested and placed under investigation.
    Witnesses cited by local La Prealpina daily said two boys from Malnate went to see two girls from Cassano Magnago near Gallarate after meeting them on social media, sparking the jealousy of two local boys who were interested in them.
    The four had an initial fight which then led to a showdown in the centre of Gallarate that youths showed up for after being alerted on WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, the daily said.
    (ANSA).