Roundup: Italian politicians trade barbs in wake of migrant shooting

by Stefania Fumo

ROME, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Italian politicians traded barbs in the wake of what is believed to be a racially-motivated shooting that left six African immigrants wounded over the weekend, as the country's main political forces wooed voters ahead of a March 4 general election.

The gunman, named as Luca Traini, 28, went on a drive-by shooting rampage, allegedly targeting immigrants, in various parts of the city of Macerata Saturday. A search of his home revealed a copy of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf" and various Nazi memorabilia, as shown on televised footage.

Center-right Forza Italia party leader Silvio Berlusconi commented in a televised interview that "there are 600,000 illegal immigrants in Italy" and they are "a social bomb waiting to explode."

Luigi Di Maio, who is running for the premiership as the head of the populist Five Star Movement, said on Facebook that "Berlusconi is a traitor to the fatherland" and his previous governments were responsible for the current immigration crisis.

Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, whose right-wing anti-immigrant party is running in coalition with Berlusconi, said "the left has blood on its hands" due to its immigration policies.

Center-left Democratic Party leader Matteo Renzi said Monday that Berlusconi's government was responsible for the immigrant flows because it signed the Dublin Regulation, an EU law that says political asylum claims must be processed in the country of first arrival.

His party wants that treaty reformed so that Italy won't have to bear the brunt of the arrivals by sea, Renzi said in televised comments.

Senate Speaker Pietro Grasso, leader of Free and Equal (LeU), a new leftist party that splintered from the ruling Democratic Party, said "those who sow hatred will reap violence".

Traini, whom local media described as "not repentant", reportedly told police he acted to avenge the death of 18-year-old Italian Pamela Mastropietro, whose body was allegedly dismembered by a Nigerian man named Innocent Oseghale.

Macerata Prosecutor Giovanni Giorgio told RAI public broadcaster that Traini stated he initially wanted to kill Oseghale in court, then "changed his mind" and decided to go on a shooting spree instead. He fired at least 30 shots from a semi-automatic Glock pistol, aiming at total strangers, various media reported.

"I wanted to avenge Pamela," Traini reportedly told police interrogators. "Illegal immigration must be stopped."

Prosecutors are charging him with attempted mass murder aggravated by racist hatred. He faces at least 15 years in prison if found guilty.

He allegedly targeted 11 African immigrants, six of whom were hospitalized. Three more escaped unharmed, and a further two people requested an ambulance but couldn't be found, possibly out of fear of being deported, ANSA news agency reported. Enditem