Italian neo-Nazi who shot at six African migrants jailed for 12 years

A picture showing a man identified by the Italian Carabinieri, paramilitary police, as Luca Traini. (ANSA via AP)

A picture showing a man identified by the Italian Carabinieri, paramilitary police, as Luca Traini. (ANSA via AP)

Published Oct 3, 2018

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Rome - Luca Traini, an Italian neo-Nazi sympathizer who earlier

this year injured six African migrants in a drive-by shooting that

caused nationwide consternation, was on Wednesday sentenced to 12

years' imprisonment.

A court in Macerata, the central Italian town where the crime took

place, found the 29-year-old guilty of attempted massacre, aggravated

by racist motives, and illegal possession of a weapon, the ANSA news

agency said.

On February 3, the 29-year-old Traini drove around Macerata shooting

at black people, in what he said was an act of revenge for the local

murder of an 18-year-old female heroin addict. A Nigerian drug dealer

has been accused of the woman's murder.

Traini is an unemployed body builder, with a neo-Nazi tattoo on his

forehead. At the end of his rampage, police arrested him on the steps

of a military monument, where he stood draped in the Italian flag,

holding up his arm in a Fascist salute.

Wednesday's first instance ruling, which can be appealed, was in line

with what the prosecution had asked for. Traini opted for a

fast-track trial, which allows for more lenient sentencing.

In a statement before the court retired to deliberate, Traini said he

was not mentally unstable, and denied any racist intent. "They tell

me I am crazy or borderline but I only had a difficult childhood," he

said according to ANSA.

The Macerata shootings poisoned the national debate on migration

during the campaign for March 4 general elections, which have led to

the formation of a populist, anti-immigration government comprising

the nationalist League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

dpa

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