Italian Unabomber

The Italian Unabomber (Italian: Unabomber) is a name given by the international media to an unknown terrorist tied to a series of booby-trap bombings in northern Italy, specifically in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions, which began in 1994. Italian law enforcement officials and the FBI believed that Unabomber is Elvo Zornitta, a 49-year-old engineer who has been charged with planting 20 bombs after police raided his home in August 2006. Though it is possible a group is behind the attacks, the prevailing assumption of the investigation and media reports is that one man is behind the crimes. Dubbed the Unabomber by the Italian media and correspondingly called the Italian Unabomber by the international press, the bomber is named after the American convicted murderer Theodore Kaczynski, referred to as the "Unabomber" during his criminal career. Kaczynski planted miniature bombs in mail packages sent to selected targets that killed three people and injured 23. Similar to Kaczynski, the Italian Unabomber hides bombs in everyday items, though never targeting anyone in particular. Instead, his bombs are set off by whoever happens to handle the booby-trapped object, including pens, candy containers and food jars. These objects are generally then placed in public places to await activation and are designed not to kill, but only to seriously injure a single person at short distance. Many of these devices are meant for small children using chocolate eggs, coloring markers, and bubble blowing tubes. Generally, the explosions severely injure limbs, hands, arms, faces and most of all eyes. Unlike Kaczynski, the attacker has made no political or economic demands. Several of his devices seem to have been planted in the "Continente" supermarket in the city of Portogruaro.

On August 28, 2006 Italian police raided the house of Elvo Zornitta, a 49-year-old engineer who has been under surveillance for a year. Police have suspected Zornitta for two years but had no proof until investigators raided his house and found a pair of scissors that forensic experts have linked to a bomb that failed to go off in 2004, with the blades that match the cut of a piece of tape used to fix one of the bombs. Booby-traps have been left in household items such as egg boxes, toothpaste and toys. "There is no such thing as the perfect crime and not even the Unabomber can get away with it cleanly", said Col. Luciano Garofano, of the Carabinieri military police. Elvio Zornitta faced trial on October 10, 2006 where the experts designated by the judges in charge of investigations into the crimes committed by the mysterious 'Unabomber' and those appointed by that main suspect Elvo Zornitta will be heard in Trieste and evidence will be examined. One of the two experts designated by Trieste's anti-mafia judge Enzo Truncellit, was an FBI detective, Carlo J. Rosato, who came directly from the United States. The second expert was Pietro Benedetti from Brescia.

In January 2009, after years of investigations, Elvo Zornitta, the case was dropped after the prosecutors asked for its dismissal, for lack of evidence. The evidence had been tampered with by the police. Elvo Zornitta received €2,500,000 as compensation for his arrest and trial which were based on false evidence.

Timeline of attacks

1994

1995

1996

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2009

References

  1. ↑ http://www.repubblica.it/2009/01/sezioni/cronaca/zornitta-scagionato/zornitta-scagionato/zornitta-scagionato.html

External links

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