Florence - It is a ruling with far-reaching consequences for the Italian judiciary and the deployment of security forces. More than a decade after the tragic death of Riccardo Magherini on the streets of Florence, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled on January 15, 2026 that the Italian state had breached its duty to protect. The court ordered a compensation payment of 140,000 euros to the bereaved.
Dangerous fixation and lack of training
At the heart of the Strasbourg decision is the night of March 3, 2014, when Riccardo Magherini, a 39-year-old former professional footballer at the time, found himself in an exceptional psychological situation caused by panic attacks and drug use. After an altercation in a bar, he was confronted by the carabinieri and pinned to the ground. The judges at the ECtHR now found that there was no „absolute necessity“ to hold Magherini in the dangerous prone position for a prolonged period of time.
The fact that there were no clear instructions for the police at the time on how to safely restrain people in a prone position without endangering their lives weighed particularly heavily for the court. According to the ruling, the officers did not have the necessary training to minimize the health risks of this technique. In Italy, the police officers involved had previously been acquitted by the domestic judiciary - a decision that has now been indirectly reprimanded by the ECtHR.
Doubts about the independence of the investigations
Another key point of criticism from the Strasbourg judges concerns the conduct of the initial investigations following the incident. The court criticized the fact that the independence of the investigations was not guaranteed. In the first crucial hours after Magherini's death, Carabinieri officers who belonged to the same unit as the police officers involved in the incident were involved in taking evidence and questioning witnesses.
For the Magherini family, the verdict is a late satisfaction after years of legal battles. His father Guido was deeply moved and emphasized that his main concern was his son's honour and the truth for his grandson. Experts now expect that Italy will have to fundamentally revise its internal guidelines for police arrests in order to prevent similar tragedies in the future and to meet European human rights standards.
