| Italian investigators have found the killer of a Novorossiysk teenager On Saturday, a group of Italian law enforcement officers arrived in Novorossiysk. The Italians warned their Russian colleagues in advance about the purpose of the trip - to clarify all the circumstances of the crime committed two years ago in this port by a member of the crew of the cruiser Vittorio Venneto.
In September 2001, the flagship of the Italian Navy, the cruiser Vittorio Venneto, came to Novorossiysk on a friendly visit. However, the friendship visit almost ended in confrontation between the youth of the entire city and the ship’s crew. The cause of the conflict was the murder of 17-year-old Novorussian Alexander Rosenbakh by an Italian sailor.
In the evening, Rosenbach and his friend walked along the pier near the marine terminal building, where the Vittorio Venneto was moored. There, for reasons not fully understood, a clash occurred between them and three members of the cruiser’s crew. This collision was noticed by the sailors who were on the deck of the ship, and immediately ran down the ladder to help their own. In total, according to the investigation conducted by the prosecutor's office of the Central District of Novorossiysk, at least 20 Italians took part in the fight. One of them stabbed Alexander Rosenbach in the chest with a knife. Seeing that the wounded guy had fallen and showed no signs of life, the sailors retreated aboard the cruiser.
The fact of the death of a local teenager at the hands of an Italian sailor excited the youth of the city, and the next morning a crowd gathered at the port, ready to take revenge on the first Italian they met. But by that time, all approaches to Vittorio Venneto were already blocked by the police. None of his crew members went ashore again. Investigators from the Novorossiysk prosecutor's office were not allowed on board the ship, although they already had a photo identikit of the killer in their hands and it would not have been difficult to identify him among the sailors. But the Italians acted in accordance with international maritime law, which gives them the legal ability to conduct the investigation themselves and not hand over the suspect. With this, the cruiser left Novorossiysk. They saw him off, as protocol required, with an orchestra, but curses were heard from behind the fence following the departing ship.
The situation in the city became so tense that the former mayor of Novorossiysk, Valery Prokhorenko, was even forced to declare the port temporarily closed to friendly visits from foreign naval ships. Six months later, passions subsided somewhat and visits by ships from the navies of other countries resumed. The investigation continued, requests were sent to Italy from the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation and State Duma deputies who became involved in the case. Only a year later the Italian side announced the name of the identified killer. He turned out to be 23-year-old Giuseppe Pillero, living in Italy, in the city of Taranto. By the way, among the Italian law enforcement officers who arrived in Novorossiysk on Saturday is the deputy prosecutor of this city. As he told his Russian colleagues, Pillero is still free, but he has been given a written undertaking not to leave.
There is now talk in Novorossiysk that the arrival of the Italians and the intensification of investigative actions carried out by the Italian side into the murder of Rosenbach is the result of the personal participation of Vladimir Putin. Allegedly, the President of Russia, who recently visited Italy, drew the attention of the Italian authorities to the fact that the investigation into this fact is strangely slowing down. Igor GLANIN, Krasnodar region |
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