The six people accused of the murder of the Italian ambassador in Congo Luca Attanasio, the carabiniere Vittorio Iacovacci and the driver Mustapha Milambo were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in the African country.
The Kinshasa military prosecutor's office had asked for the death penalty for the six, but Italy, as a civil party, had asked for a just prison sentence to be imposed and not capital punishment.
Five defendants ended up on the stand while a sixth, the ringleader, is on the run.
The defendants were arrested in January last year and, after initial admissions, they later declared themselves innocent claiming that they had been forced to confess by violence, a circumstance denied by the prosecution.
(Unioneonline/lf)
