He died of an overdose while under arrest at the police station in Milan. Now Italy will have to pay 30 thousand euros for moral damages to the victim's mother, partner and daughter.

This was decided by the European Court of Human Rights, which condemned our country for violating the right to life of a man indicated by the initials "CC".

The man was arrested for crimes related to drug trafficking and taken to the police station in Milan on the night of May 10, 2001 . While in custody he died of an overdose.

A long legal battle followed: the public prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation into the death and on 3 April 2003 decided that from the evidence collected no elements had emerged that could link the man's death to external events committed by third parties. However, the victim's mother, partner and daughter filed a claim for damages against the Ministry of the Interior for failure to provide assistance and failure to monitor . The court of first instance held the Ministry of the Interior responsible for the man's death and awarded 100 thousand euros in damages to the mother and 125 thousand to the daughter. But the Interior Ministry appealed and won, just as it won in the Court of Cassation.

The women therefore appealed to the Strasbourg Court on 23 December 2011 . After twelve years, the international judges ruled that they were right: "The government did not convincingly demonstrate that it had offered the victim sufficient and reasonable protection of his life" despite being aware of his condition and the associated risks.

(Unioneonline/D)

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