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ROME - A Rome judge has ordered a United States soldier to stand trial for killing an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq in 2005 while he was escorting a freed hostage to safety.
Mario Lozano, of the US Army's 69th Infantry Regiment, was charged with voluntary homicide for shooting Nicola Calipari at a checkpoint near Baghdad Airport.
Lozano will almost certainly be tried in absentia. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said it was "a fair assumption" the US military would not hand over Lozano for trial.
"As far as the Defence Department is concerned, we and the Ministry of Defence in Italy consider this a closed matter." Both countries have called the death an accident.
Italy's independent prosecutors disagreed and Judge Sante Spinaci granted their request to charge Lozano also on two counts of attempted murder - one for the other Italian agent driving the vehicle and the second for the freed hostage inside.
Calipari became a national hero in Italy for securing the release of kidnapped left-wing journalist Giuliana Sgrena. He died trying to shield her from gunfire at a US checkpoint shortly after her release.
His widow Rosa, now a member of the Italian Senate, said at the criminal court hearing that she was "satisfied". "This is the first step in a long process. I hope we will eventually have justice."
Sgrena told reporters: "We don't want to make Mario Lozano the scapegoat, but we want to find out who was responsible and have justice."
The trial will begin on April 17. Lozano, of the New York Army National Guard, was the gunner at the US checkpoint on the road to Baghdad Airport.
- REUTERS
