http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%9308_Serie_A
http://www.gabrielesandri.it/
Italy: Policemen gets stiffer sentence for football fan's death - 02/12/2010
Source : AKI
An Italian police officer has been jailed for the murder of a football fan in central Italy three years ago. A court in the central Italian city of Florence late on Wednesday sentenced Luigi Spaccarotella on appeal to nine years and four months in prison for shooting dead 26--year-old Gabriele Sandri at a motorway service station near the town of Arezzo on 11 November 2007.
"This is very right. In fact, Spaccarotella probably deserved more than nine years and four months in prison," a Lazio supporter and former paramilitary police officer, Gianluca Sterrantino, told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Thursday, commenting on the sentence.
"He clearly intended to kill," Sterrantino added.
Prosecutors had asked for a 14-year jail term for Spaccarotella on appeal.
A lower court in 2009 convicted Spaccarotella of Sandri's manslaughter and convicted him to six years in jail, sparking anger and dismay from Sandri's family and Lazio fans.
Sandri's family on Tuesday welcomed the longer sentence handed to Spaccarotella, which was greeted with cheers from the slain Lazio supporter's friends when it was read out in the courtroom. They embraced Sandri's parents as they left court.
"This ruling is true to the real version of events," said his father, Giorgio Sandri. "Justice has been done, I feel proud to be Italian."
Spaccarotella, who did not attend court on Wednesday, said he was "dismayed" by the verdict.
"I am dismayed. I don't feel I am a killer," he said in a telegram sent by his lawyer. He claims his pistol went off by mistake.
Spaccarotella apparently aimed his pistol from a distance of 60 metres at a car exiting the service station at Badia al Pino, with Sandri inside. Sandri, one of four passengers, was hit in the neck. He and his companions were travelling see Lazio play Inter in Milan and had just scuffled with Juventus fans.
Spaccarotella said he thought the Renault Megane's occupants had robbed the service station and were making a rapid getaway.
Sandri's killing sparked a night of violence around Rome's Olympic stadium, in which a police officer was struck with a metal bar. Several rightwing hooligans, mainly Lazio fans, where convicted of fomenting the riots, in which around 500 fans attacked three police stations and the headquarters of the Italian Olympic Committee.
Incidents also took place in Bergamo, Milan and in other Italian cities, and led to the suspension of many Serie A matches.
