Italian President Sergio Mattarella
paid homage to late intelligence officer Nicola Calipari Tuesday
on the 20th anniversary of his death in Iraq.
Calipari was killed on March 4, 2005, when US troops manning a
temporary roadblock opened fire on a car carrying him, another
agent and released hostage Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad airport.
The intelligence officer shielded with his body Sgrena, a
journalist for il Manifesto who had been kidnapped by insurgents
a month prior.
Mattarella hailed Calipari's "sacrifice" saying his difficult
mission to Baghdad had led to the successful rescue of the
abducted Italian.
"If the circumstances that caused his death are still not clear,
instead Calipari's extreme generosity stands out as he responded
to the shootout by shielding with his body the person he had
successfully freed", he noted in a "gesture of heroism written
in the Republic's history".
Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also
remembered Calipari with a post on X Tuesday, describing him as
an "Italian hero".
Calipari was a veteran secret service agent and experienced
negotiator who had helped return other hostages kidnapped in
Iraq home to Italy.
The US soldier who shot at the Toyota that was carrying Sgrena
and Calipari to the airport, Mario Lonzano, was acquitted by an
Italian Court of Assizes after it ruled that it did not have
jurisdiction over the case because multinational forces in Iraq
are under the exclusive criminal jurisdiction of their
respective countries of origin.
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