An Italian judge ordered Wednesday a US soldier to stand trial on homicide charges for shooting dead an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq in 2005 as he was escorting a freed journalist to safety, Reuters has reported. Mario Lozano of the US Army's 69th Infantry Regiment was charged with voluntary homicide for shooting Nicola Calipari at a checkpoint near Baghdad airport.
He will be almost certainly tried in absentia as the US military has not revealed his location to Italy. Lozano was also charged with two counts of attempted murder against another Italian agent driving the vehicle and the freed Italian hostage whom they were protecting. The trial will begin on April 17.
Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, held hostage in Iraq for a month, was wounded shortly after her release on March 4, 2005 and security agent Calipari was killed when US-led coalition forces fired on their car near a military checkpoint in Baghdad.
Sgrena, a reporter for the Rome-based daily Il Manifesto who had been held captive since February 4, was taken to an American military hospital, where she had a minor operation on her left shoulder to remove a piece of shrapnel.
The shooting claimed the life of Calipari who was accompanying her. The editor of Il Manifesto, Gabriele Polo, said the agent was killed when he threw himself over the freed hostage to protect her from fire, according to the Italian news agency Apcom.
Calipari became a national hero in Italy, and his shooting prompted an outcry in Italy and added to the unpopularity of then premier Silvio Berlusconi's decision to support the United States in Iraq. He eventually decided to withdraw Italian troops.
Calipari’s widow Rosa, now a member of the Italian Senate, said at the hearing in a criminal court that she was "satisfied" at the decision by Judge Sante Spinaci, but added: "This is the first step in a long process. I hope we will eventually have justice."
Rosa Calipari has denounced Washington for exonerating Lozano and Berlusconi's government for accepting that it was an accident. Rome did however criticise the US military for placing inexperienced troops at a poorly executed roadblock.
Sgrena, according to Reuters, told reporters: "We don't want to make Mario Lozano the scapegoat, but we want to find out who was responsible and have justice."
Lozano's Italian lawyer Fabrizio Cardinali said the decision surprised him: "He (Lozano) was carrying out his duty, which is something that the judge did not consider relevant."
