Manager probed over Italian hostage deaths in Libya

Parma (Italy), Oct 19 (IANS/AKI) Prosecutors said on Wednesday they are probing a manager at the company that employed two Italian engineers who were abducted last year by Islamic State militants in Libya and killed in captivity.

The unnamed manager at Parma-based engineering firm Bonatti is under investigation for manslaughter and breaking employment law over the deaths of Fausto Piano and Salvatore Failla in March last year, according to prosecutors.

The offices of Bonatti were also searched as part of the probe, investigators said.

Piano and Failla were kidnapped, and found dead after a firefight in the western city of Sabratha in Libya in March last year in circumstances that have not yet been fully clarified.

The case has raised fears for the safety of two other Italians and a Canadian who were abducted outside the remote southwestern Libyan city of Ghat last month.

No group has claimed the kidnapping of Bruno Cacace and Danilo Calonego and the Canadian, identified only as Frank. All three men work for the Libyan branch of Italian engineering firm Contratti lnternazionali Costruzioni.

--IANS

rn