Roma football 'ultra' gets 26 years for rival fan's murder

Rome, May 24 (IANS/AKI) A court here on Tuesday gave a 26-year jail term to notorious Roma hooligan or 'ultra' Daniele De Santis, for the fatal shooting of a rival football fan before the 2014 Italian Cup final.

The Rome court convicted De Santis, of shooting 31-year-old Ciro Esposito during violent clashes with Napoli fans who were in Rome for the final against Fiorentina in May 2014.

Esposito died in hospital from his injuries 53 days later.

"I believe that any sentence aims to prevent what happened to my son from happening in the future," Esposito's mother, Antonella Leardi told reporters after the verdict.

"I don't feel any hatred and always asked for justice to be done," she added, saying she had forgiven De Santis soon after clashes between Napoli and Roma fans.

The court also sentenced to eight months in prison two Napoli fans for violence in Rome's Tor di Quinto suburb and ordered De Santis to pay damages to the Esposito family.

Rome prosecutors had sought a life sentence for De Santis, who admitted to pulling the trigger of the gun that killed Esposito but unsuccessfully argued that he did so in self-defence.

At least five police were injured trying to break up a series of clashes between Roma and Napoli hooligans ahead of the match, incidents that made world news.

--IANS

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