Rome - The Italian government was expected Friday to issue
the first expulsion orders for foreigners from European Union member
states living in Italy who are deemed a threat to public safety.
A decree on the expulsions was approved by Prime Minister Romano
Prodi's centre-left cabinet late on Wednesday in the wake of a brutal
attack in Rome on a 47-year-old woman allegedly by a Romanian man.
The woman, Giovanna Reggiani, died on Thursday night after being
taken off life support when doctors determined all brain activity had
ceased, news reports said Friday.
Reggiani, who was found lying in a ditch naked, is believed to
have been raped and beaten near a camp Tuesday night after getting
off a train at the Rome's Tor di Quinto station.
Police arrested a Romanian in his mid-20 identified as Nicolae
Mailat, who lives in a shack in a squatter settlement which is home
to thousands of immigrants, some legal others illegal.
A provision for the expulsion of EU citizens was contained in a
security package approved Tuesday for tabling in parliament, but the
attack which provoked outrage in Italy prompted the cabinet to issue
a decree which will bring it into immediate effect.
A series of violent crimes in Rome in recent months have been
blamed on Romanians including the mugging and injuring of
Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore in the summer.
'Rome was the world's safest city until Romania's entry into the
EU' in January, Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni was quoted as saying by
the daily La Repubblica.
Veltroni says some 75 percent of all arrests in the Italian
capital over the last year involved Romanians and has repeatedly
called on Bucharest to ensure that it prevents criminals to emigrate
to other EU states.
Mailat had been given a three-year prison sentence in Romania for
theft but had disappeared before he could be jailed, according to
Italian news reports.
EU policies allow the free movement of citizens within the 27-
member bloc, but countries still have the right to keep certain
people out if they are considered dangerous.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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