Court in Italy to deliver today judgment in National guard Markiv’s case

Photo credits: Radio Liberty Today, July 12^th, the court of the city of Pavia in Italy is to deliver judgement within the case of  Vitaliy Markiv, a former soldier of Ukraine's National Guard, who is accused of involvement in the murder of Italian photographer Andrea Rocchelli in 2014 in the Donbas, as Radio VFree Europe/Radio Liberty reported. The jury panel has to decide wether Markiv is guilty or not. On July 5^th, the debate before bar were closed.  The lawyer of Markiv Donatella Rapetti pleaded her client was not guilty, because there was no confirmation that Rocchelli and his aid Andriy Mironov had perished due to shellfire just from the Ukrainian side. The prosecutors demand to sentence him to 17 years of imprisonment. The judge offered Markiv to say the final remark, as to Hromadske.ua. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he said he was a simple Ukrainian soldier, a patriot and added that he would always defend Ukraine. After that, the court went to the deliberation room. Verdict is expected around 2p.m. CET. IMI informed that the senior sergeant Vitaliy Markiv was detained on June 30 in Italy as a person suspected of murder of photojournalist, citizen of Italy, Andrea Rocelli and his Russian colleague Andrey Mironov near Slovyansk in 2014. Markiv, who holds both Ukrainian and Italian citizenship is being tried under Italian law in the city of Pavia. He denied the charges.