Luca Traini, a rightwing militant who shot and wounded six African migrants in a drive-by 'revenge' shooting in Macerata in 2018, was released from jail on March 3 and placed under the care of social services.
When convicted, Luca Traini was handed a 12-year jail term after being found guilty of shooting and wounding six African migrants in the central Italian town Macerata, in the Marche region of Italy.
The 35-year-old said he went on the drive-by rampage in 'revenge' for the rape, murder and dismemberment, reported days before, of 18-year old Roman woman Pamela Mastropietro outside Macerata in Marche, allegedly at the hands of a Nigerian drug dealer. A Nigerian man, named as Innocent Oseghale in the Italian press, with reportedly prior convictions for drugs went on trial for her rape and murder in 2019, his prison term and guilty sentence was confirmed at the beginning of this year.
However, Traini's targets had nothing to do with Mastropietro's murder. Traini was given a 12-year jail term for assault aggravated by racial hatred. Now, a court has allowed him to serve what remains of his sentence, less than four years, by doing community work on the grounds that Traini has understood the gravity of his crime and the pain it caused.
The lawyer representing Mastropietro's family, Marco Valerio Verni, said on their behalf that if a court had granted Traini's request for parole "all the requirements were met", including the possibility of rebuilding his life.
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"Everything, even the worst of crimes, must be settled in a court of law, never by following other paths that would open the way to a do-it-yourself justice that does not belong, nor should belong, to the rule of law," added Pamela's uncle who represents her mother and family.
"It is possible to criticize the judicial world, when necessary and with the appropriate conditions, but we must always respect it and have confidence in it," he continued.
Ruling in favor of the request presented by Traini's attorney Sergio Del Medico, the parole court recognized that the 35-year-old had embarked on an "exemplary" journey, "critically reviewing" his conduct and becoming aware of having committed an act that caused pain, according to the psychologists and social workers under whose care he has been placed.
In prison, in particular in the establishment Ancona Barcaglione, Traini attended many courses, including on poetry, agriculture and sheep herding, with the possibility of working in nearby areas.
He has already been granted permits to get out of prison for the Christmas and Easter holidays over the past year.
An intention to start a new life and pay back victims
Now the court has released him and placed him under the care of social services: he will work at an aluminum factory and he has told his lawyer that he wants to focus on his job and family and that he would like to pay back the victims.
Pamela's family said they are also hoping that her killer will learn from his mistakes and that they trust the judicial system.
"Despite what happened, which has been described as unique in international criminology over the past 50 years, this is what we do and have done", recalled Pamela's uncle Verni.
"We trust that the same result can be achieved with Oseghale, Pamela's killer, so that he will repent for what he has done (he was been convicted by three courts and the convictions have been upheld three times by Italy's supreme Cassation Court) and that, perhaps, he will name his potential accomplices whose presence we continue to suspect," he concluded.