An Italian appeals court has sentenced a 23-year-old Libyan man to 16 years in jail for the murder of a migrant who did not obey an order to take off his hat because he did not understand Arabic. A court of first instance had previously sentenced him to life.
An appeals court in Catania, Sicily, has reduced a life term to 16 years in jail for the 23-year-old Libyan citizen Nouredine Alhadi Abouzid, on charges of criminal association, aiding and abetting illegal immigration and moral responsibility in the murder of a 23-year-old migrant from Sierra Leone, Osman Kellie.
A preliminary hearings judge (GUP) on February 13, 2018, had sentenced Abouzid to life.
Eye witnesses testified
The appeals court partly ruled in favor of the request presented by defense attorney Massimo Ferrante to grant him extenuating circumstances. The appeals judges will deposit the sentence's motivation within the next 90 days.
The victim's body reached Catania on May 6 aboard the Phoenix vessel operated by humanitarian organization MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station) with 394 migrants. According to several witness reports, including one of the victim's brothers, the man was shot dead because he did not take off his hat as he had been ordered in Arabic, a language he didn't understand. The victim was aboard a rubber dinghy being escorted, along with two wooden boats, by another vessel in fiberglass from which the deadly gunshots were fired.
Libyan defendant's defence
The group of people who were aboard the boat in fiberglass that was escorting the other vessels was filmed from an airplane chartered by the NGO MOAS to fly close to the 'Phoenix'. The young Libyan defendant can be seen in the footage. He is wearing a camel jacket and he is filmed as he says goodbye to the other passengers on the fiberglass vessel and climbs into one of the wooden boats. His defense lawyer said during the trial that he was only a passenger who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He has announced that he will appeal to Italy's supreme court of Cassation.