Tests identify slain Italian

2004-05-27 20:27

Rome - Laboratory tests on Thursday confirmed that the remains of a man repatriated from Iraq on Monday were indeed those of an Italian man taken hostage in April and subsequently killed by his abductors, judicial sources said.

The tests by a laboratory of the paramilitary Carabinieri confirmed the man was Fabrizio Quattrocchi, a 36-year-old contractor. Parallel tests made by an Italian forensic expert at the request of the victim's family yielded the same results.

Quattrocchi, a former baker from Genoa who was working as a security guard in Iraq, was kidnapped on April 12 along with three other Italians. He was shot in the back of the neck two days later by masked men in a gruesome scene captured on video.

The images of the execution-style killing were deemed too harrowing for general release and have never been seen by the wider public.

The fate of three others captured with him is unknown, although a video broadcast a month ago showed them alive. There has been no further news of their whereabouts or state of health since then.

The kidnappers had called on Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to withdraw the three thousand Italian military personnel deployed in Iraq in return for the release of the hostages.

But Berlusconi has made it clear that the troops will remain in Iraq despite the kidnappings.

- AFP