In a recent development, Judge Marisa Mosetti of Italy ruled on Tuesday that two UN agency employees cannot be tried over the deaths of an Italian ambassador, his bodyguard, and a driver in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as reported by the Rome daily newspaper, Fatto Quotidiano.
The case in question pertains to the 2021 deaths of Italian ambassador to the DRC, Luca Attanasio, his bodyguard Vittorio Iacovacci, and driver Mustapha Milambo. The victims were killed during a failed kidnapping attempt while en route to a World Food Program project. In 2023, a local military court convicted six men for the attack and then sentenced them to life imprisonment.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rome, earlier, had called for the trial of Rocco Leone and Mansour Luguru Rwagaza, deputy chief of the World Food Program in DRC and a security officer, respectively. They were accused of negligence in planning the trip. These charges implicated them in the responsibility for the deaths.
However, Mosetti’s verdict recognized that Leone and Rwagaza, as UN agency employees, are protected by diplomatic immunity. This bars them from facing a criminal trial in Italy. The issue of diplomatic immunity was discussed during a hearing on January 24, when a lawyer from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation advised the court of the legitimacy of this immunity.
DespiteTuesday’s verdict, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Rome plans to appeal. Salvatore Attanasio, the father of the deceased ambassador, has expressed his disappointment with the court’s decision, which was finalised just days prior to the third anniversary of his son’s death.