Italy death sparks expulsion order

A woman who was raped and beaten near a Gypsy camp allegedly by a Romanian has died, state radio has reported. The latest attack blamed on a foreigner has prompted the government to give authorities the power to expel EU immigrants deemed dangerous.

Police at the scene of a fatal attack on a woman in Rome which has prompted new powers against EU foreigners.

"Horror in Rome" read the front-page headline Thursday in Il Messaggero, a daily newspaper in the city. "End of tolerance," began an accompanying editorial calling for a tough response.

Early Friday, Italian state radio said the woman had been taken off life support Thursday night after tests showed that her brain activity had ceased. Defense Minister Arturo Parisi sent the woman’s husband, a navy commander, a message of condolence, officials said.

Although the free movement of EU citizens within the 27 member nations is a cornerstone of EU policy, countries still have the right to keep certain people out if they are deemed dangerous.

Italy’s president signed a decree Thursday allowing the expulsion of European Union citizens "for reasons of public safety" to fight "episodes of heavy violence and ferocious crime."

"We are not acting out of rage, but we are determined to keep a high and just level of security for our citizens," said Premier Romano Prodi, whose center-left Cabinet approved the decree in a special meeting Wednesday night.

The 47-year-old victim was attacked as she walked along a road after dark Tuesday toward the barracks where she lives, police said. She was beaten, dragged through mud and left half naked in a ditch.

The woman "was unconscious, breathing with difficulty," said Roberto Fornaiolo, one of the policemen who found the woman.

"She was covered with mud because she was dragged across the ground. At first we couldn’t make out the bruises because there was so much blood on her face," Fornaiolo said.

News reports said the woman appeared to have been sexually attacked but investigators could not immediately be reached to confirm this.

Police arrested a Romanian in his 20s identified as Nicolae Mailat, who lives in a shack in one of several sprawling settlements on the outskirts of Rome where thousands of residents — some legal, some not — live in hovels or trailers. Many are from Romania, which joined the European Union earlier this year.

Police said dozens of shacks would be knocked down as part of the crackdown.

Italian news reports said Mailat had been given a three-year prison sentence in Romania for theft but had disappeared before he could be jailed.

A series of violent crimes in the capital has been blamed on Romanians in recent months. Oscar-winning director Giuseppe Tornatore was hospitalized over the summer after he was punched in the jaw by one of two muggers in an upscale neighborhood.

In August, three Romanians allegedly mugged a cyclist along the Tiber River. The cyclist died in early October after weeks in a coma.

The attacks have shocked Rome, where street violence has long been unusual.

Opinion polls show Prodi’s popularity is low and that citizens link violent crime to immigrants.

"Today’s horror in Rome … is the consequence of yesterday’s excessive tolerance," said the editorial in Il Messaggero.

The right-wing opposition has used the violence to lambast leftist politicians, particularly Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni.

Gianfranco Fini, an ally of conservative former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, said his right-wing National Alliance party would back the government’s decree. But he said the party would push for even stiffer action, including the power to expel EU citizens who do not have income to support themselves.