Rome - One of two US teenagers arrested for the killing of an
Italian policeman was blindfolded and handcuffed while in police
custody, according to a picture that has sparked controversy.
Gabriel Christian Natale-Hjorth, 18, was arrested with Finnegan Lee
Elder, 19, following the fatal stabbing overnight into Friday of
Carabinieri policeman Mario Cerciello Rega.
In the picture, which has been circulated widely on Italian and
international media, Natale Horth is shown sitting inside a police
station, head bowed, with a band covering his eyes.
The way the suspect was treated "is completely unjustified and will
not be in any way tolerated," Carabinieri Rome Commander Francesco
Gargaro told RAI public radio on Monday.
A criminal investigation is ongoing to determine who blindfolded
Natale-Hjorth, who took the picture and who leaked it to the media,
Gargaro confirmed.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte condemned the incident, and said the
police officer suspected of mistreating the suspect has been removed
from the case.
"To be clear: giving that treatment to a person deprived of liberty
does not correspond with our legal principles and values, and
actually constitutes a crime, or maybe two," Conte wrote on Facebook.
Far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was more dismissive,
writing on social media that "the only victim" in the affair is the
dead officer.
Cerciello Rega was involved in a plain-clothes operation to retrieve
a backpack that Natale-Hjorth and Elder had allegedly stolen from a
drug dealer in retaliation for being sold fake cocaine.
The police officer, whose funeral was due to take place Monday, died
of multiple stab wounds.
According to Italian police, Elder has confessed to the stabbing.