(ANSA) - The wife of an Italian intelligence officer killed by 'friendly fire' in Iraq has praised the Italian judiciary for having the "independence" to place a US Marine under investigation on possible murder charges.
Intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed on March 4 when US troops manning a temporary roadblock opened fire on a car carrying him, another agent and a released hostage to Baghdad airport.
A joint investigation by Italian and US military experts failed to reach a shared conclusion, with the American members clearing the soldiers of all responsibility and the Italians blaming the US's organisation of the roadblock.
On Thursday, Rome prosecutors announced that they had formally placed US Marine Mario Lozano under investigation for Calipari's murder.
"The judiciary has demonstrated its independence by taking such a significant step towards the truth. I was moved but not surprised by the news. I was sure the judiciary would move in this direction," Rosa Calipari said on Friday.
Italian investigators identified Lozano thanks to a youth in Bologna who used a computer trick to uncover his name which had been blacked out in the joint report.
American authorities have never replied to Italian investigators' requests for the names of the soldiers manning the roadblock. Ballistic evidence gathered from the car Calipari was travelling in indicated that only one weapon had been fired. Rosa Calipari said she was "disappointed over the lack
of response by the Americans to official requests for further information and their position now that, for them, the case is closed."
Calipari's widow would not say whether she expected any results from the Italian probe, but recalled that when she received her husband's posthumous gold medal for bravery from President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, "he told me that he agreed with my view that there cannot be peace without justice."
