Father says miscarriage over Somali killings

The father of a Somali man convicted of killing two Italian journalists in Mogadishu six years ago has described the verdict as a miscarriage of justice.

Omar Hassan Fodbal made his comments to correspondents after an Italian court of appeal overturned the verdict of a lower court last year which had acquitted his son, Hashi Omar Hassan, over the shotgun deaths of a woman journalist with the Italian state broadcaster RAI Ilaria Alpi and her cameraman Miran Hrovatin.

Mr. Hassan's clan elder in Mogadishu Ali Hassan Jima'ale appealed for calm from the Somalian community in Italy and urged the Somalian government to take steps to gain Mr. Hassan's release. The defendant, who has the right to appeal, was arrested nearly three years ago when he went to Rome to testify against Italian troops accused of torturing local militiamen during the United Nations peace mission of 1992-95.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service