The Supreme Court confirms the acquittal – declaring the appeals inadmissible – against Vitaly Markiv at the trial for the murder of Andy Rocchelli, the thirty-year-old Pavia photojournalist killed by mortar fire on May 24, 2014, while he was making a report in the Donbass, area of Ukraine occupied by pro-Russian separatists.
This was decided by the first criminal section of the Court of Cassation, declaring the appeals presented to be inadmissible. Deputy Attorney General Antonietta Picardi had asked to hold a new appeal process. Vitaly Markiv, an Italian-Ukrainian and former soldier of the Ukrainian National Guard, was sentenced in the first instance to 24 years in prison and then acquitted in Milan on appeal “for not having committed the crime”. Markiv, after spending more than three years in prison, has returned to Ukraine and now the matter is closed for him with the decision of the Supreme Court. Markiv’s defense: “There is great satisfaction with this acquittal.”