The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has sentenced Italy to compensation for the death of Riccardo Magherini, which occurred in 2014 in Florence during an arrest by the Carabinieri: “Weaknesses in the investigation and in the guidelines”

The Strasbourg Court ruled unanimously that “there were two violations of Article 2 (right to life/investigation) of the European Convention on Human Rights”. “he died after the carabinieri had immobilized and handcuffed him, keeping him in a prone position for approximately 20 minutes. The Court considered that the fact that the carabinieri kept RM on the ground in a prone position for approximately 20 minutes after his initial immobilization, and even after he had apparently become unconscious, was not absolutely necessary”underlines the ECtHR, which also reports that it “found deficiencies in the investigation that followed (with regards to its independence), in the training of the police on immobilization techniques and in the guidelines in force in Italy at the time to place people in a prone position with the minimum risk to health and life”.

The Court specifies, however, that it has not expressed its opinion regarding the criminal responsibility of the people involved in the episode and that “does not question the decisions of the Italian courts, which ultimately acquitted the four carabinieri involved in the accident”.

The ECtHR has established that Italy must pay 7 appellants a total of 140 thousand euros as compensation for moral damage and, jointly, 40 thousand euros for expenses