Italian court tosses out case of GI in spy’s death

A court Thursday threw out the case of an American soldier charged in the 2005 shooting death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq, agreeing with a defense argument that Italy lacked jurisdiction.

Spc. Mario Lozano was being tried in absentia on charges of murder and attempted murder.

Prosecutor Pietro Saviotti said he would decide whether to appeal after the judges make their reasoning public, which will happen within 60 days.

On March 4, 2005, Nicola Calipari was shot at a checkpoint near the Baghdad airport shortly after securing the release of kidnapped Italian reporter Giuliana Sgrena. She and an agent who was driving the car were wounded.

“We’ve given up trying to find the truth about what happened to Nicola Calipari,” Sgrena told reporters at the Rebibbia courthouse on the capital’s outskirts. “The arrogance of America, which never wanted this trial, has won.”

Rosa Calipari, the agent’s widow and a senator in Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s ruling coalition, told the news agency ANSA that “they have killed Nicola for a second time.”

Lozano, a 38-year-old member of the New York-based 69th Infantry Regiment, has denied wrongdoing, saying he had no choice but to fire at the car. He has told U.S. media that he flashed a warning light signaling to the vehicle to stop and that he shot first at the ground, and then at the car’s engine.

A message left on Lozano’s cellphone was not immediately returned.

U.S. authorities have said the vehicle was traveling fast, alarming soldiers who feared an insurgent attack. Italian officials said the car was traveling at normal speed and accused the U.S. military of failing to signal that there was a checkpoint.

Italy had not sought Lozano’s extradition, but the Pentagon had indicated that he would not have been extradited anyway, saying it considered the incident a “closed matter.”

Lozano’s defense lawyer here had argued that Italy could not try the soldier because members of multinational forces operating in Iraq are under the “exclusive jurisdiction” of the country that sent them.

“It’s the end of a nightmare for him,” lawyer Alberto Biffani said. “There were a lot of reasons for this case to be decided as it was.”

The ruling was criticized by Italian politicians and reawakened anger at a perceived lack of U.S. cooperation in the investigations that followed the incident.

Nicola Calipari, who shielded Sgrena when U.S. fire hit the car, was widely seen as a hero in Italy, with as many as 20,000 mourners attending a state funeral for him in Rome.