When his store was broken into, a jeweler shot at the thieves. Now the brave man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison by an Italian court. According to the Public Prosecution Service, he exceeded the limits of legal self-defense with the ‘execution’. The verdict divides the country.
Mario Roggero shot three robbers on April 28, 2021, after they broke into his shop in Grinzane Cavour. There the perpetrators tied his daughter behind her back with cable ties and threatened his wife with death. Roggero was then forced at gunpoint into a back room by the trio. “They counted: five, four, three. I thought I was going to die,” Roggero later told the Italian press.
The three robbers then grabbed jewelry and watches and left the store. But Roggero followed them into the parking lot. Surveillance cameras show him storming out of the store, chasing the thieves, then shooting him five times. Andrea Spinelli and Giuseppe Mazzarino died a few meters from the entrance to the store, one on the street, the other on the corner of a side street. A third escaped and was arrested after being shot.
Jeweler sees verdict as ‘victory for crime’
The verdict divides Italy. Even politicians are critical. “He worked hard all his life and just wanted to defend his family and his business,” Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini explained. Lucio Malan of the right-wing national party Fratelli d’Italia said: “If you did a survey, 95 percent of Italians would be against this punishment.” Roggero himself calls the verdict a ‘victory for crime’.
Source: Krone
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