Milan, June 29 (IANS/AKI) An Italian judge Tuesday acquitted the mentally unbalanced man who attacked Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at a political rally last year on grounds of diminished responsibility.
Judge Luisa Savoia ruled that Massimo Tartaglia be placed under a control order for a year and obey a community psychiatric therapy centre director’s orders during that time.
Tartaglia is also banned from attending political rallies for 12 months, Savoia said.
Public prosecutors requested the judge to drop criminal charges against Massimo Tartaglia at his fast-tracked trial in Milan Tuesday.
A fresh psychiatric assessment ordered by Milan prosecutors last Friday found Tartaglia was ‘mentally infirm’ at the time of the attack against Berlusconi in Milan last December.
Tartaglia’s defence lawyers argued he was not a danger to society and asked him to be released.
Tartaglia was arrested after he hurled a small alabaster replica of Milan’s landmark cathedral in Berlusconi’s face after a political rally in Milan Dec 13.
Berlusconi was hospitalised after the attack, in which his nose and two teeth were broken.
The attack took place as the prime minister shook hands with supporters and signed autographs in front of Milan’s gothic cathedral, the Duomo.
Earlier this year Tartaglia was granted house arrest. He was previously held in the psychiatric wing of Milan’s San Carlo hospital, which is located close to the Duomo
–IANS/AKI
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