Foreign minister Luigi Di Maio and justice minister Alfonso Bonafede are urging Spain's authorities to ensure "a rapid conclusion" to the upcoming trial of two Russians accused of beating to death Italian tourist Niccolo Ciatti outside a disco in northeast Spain in 2017, Di Maio said on Friday.
"Niccolo's sad and painful case is receiving the utmost attention from the foreign ministry, from Italy's embassy in Madrid and the Consulate General in Barcelona," Di Maio stated.
"Our representation in Spain, working closely with the Italian foreign ministry have followed the legal case against the prime suspect whom public prosecutors have asked to be tried for first-degree murder."
Chechen asylum-seeker Rassoul Bissoultanov is accused of delivering a fatal kick in the head to Ciatti in August 2017 in the beach resort of Lloret de Mar. He will stand trial for Ciatti's murder in April or May at latest, Spain's justice minister has said, according to the Ciatti family's lawyer.
"The alleged killer is still in pre-trial detention, a measure that has been extended until August," Di Maio said.
Under Spanish law, criminal suspects cannot be held in pre-trial custody for more than four years.
Another Russian, Movsar Magomadov, also in his twenties, will also be in the dock with Bissoultanov for his alleged role in Ciatti's death, according to Florence-based daily La Nazione.
Ciatti, 23, worked as a fruit seller in his hometown of Scandicci, Tuscany, and was on holiday in Spain with friends who were also beaten during the vicious 14 August 2017 attack.
The suspects and Ciatti did not know each other, and there was no verbal altercation before the beating started, local media cited investigators as saying at the time of the deadly attack.
