Fresh doubts have emerged over the
conviction of Somali man Omar Hashi Hassan in the 1994 murder in
Mogadishu of Italian reporter Ilaria Alpi and cameraman Miran
Hrovatin.
According to the Italian diplomat who investigated the case
in Somalia, former ambassador Giuseppe Cassini, the driver who
acted as a key witness for the prosecution was "an unreliable
individual who would do anything to survive".
Cassini's declassified testimony was published by La
Repupbblica newspaper Monday.
In January a Perugia appeals court granted a defence motion
to reopen the trial of Hassan.
The court agreed to admit new evidence that has since
emerged that could reverse the conviction.
The defence is seeking exoneration for their client, who
was released to the custody of social services in June last year
after serving 16 years of a 26-year sentence.
Alpi, 32, and Hrovatin, 45, were ambushed and shot in their
jeep in Mogadishu by a seven-man commando on March 20, 1994.
Photos taken of the dead body of Alpi, who worked for
public broadcaster RAI's third channel, and a medical report on
the deaths, along with other key evidence including Alpi's
notes, camera and video cassettes, mysteriously went missing on
the journey back from Africa to Italy, fuelling suspicions of a
cover-up.
In February last year, a key witness for the prosecution
said that Hassan was "innocent".
Speaking to RAI Channel 3, Ahmed Ali Rage claimed that he
was asked to testify against Hassan.
"I did not see who fired the shots," he reportedly told
RAI 3, recanting his testimony.
Alpi, 32, and Hrovatin, 45, were ambushed and shot in their
jeep in Mogadishu by a seven-man commando unit on March 20,
1994.
Initially, it was thought that the journalist was murdered
as revenge for clashes which had broken out between the militias
of Somalia's warlords and Italian peacekeepers.
But a 1999 book by Alpi's parents called The Execution
alleged that Alpi and Hrovatin were killed to stop them
revealing what they knew about an international arms and
toxic-waste ring implicating high-level political, military and
economic figures in both countries.
The book accuses the Italian secret services of playing a
major role in this ring.
Hassan, who travelled to Italy in 1998 to give evidence in
a probe into brutality by Italian soldiers, was acquitted of
involvement in the two murders at the end of a first trial in
July 1999.
But he was found guilty by an appeals court in 2000 and
sentenced to life in prison.
Italy's supreme Cassation Court upheld the guilty verdict
in October 2001 but reduced the sentence from life to 26 years
because it said the crimes were not premeditated.
Hassan's lawyers have claimed he was not in Mogadishu at
the time of the killing, and say he was tricked into coming to
Italy.
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