NAMES IN THE NEWS : Slaying Trial Ordered for Prince
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BASTIA, Corsica — After 11 years of deliberations, a Corsican court has ordered the pretender to the Italian throne to stand trial for the fatal shooting of a West German youth.
Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, 52, son of Italy’s last king, will be tried for manslaughter, court sources said.
The prince is the only son of King Umberto II, who reigned for about a month in 1946 and went into exile after Italians voted in favor of a republic. Constitutionally barred from Italy, the prince lives in Switzerland and France.
The 1978 shooting occurred when the prince was vacationing on his yacht off the French Mediterranean island of Bonifacio. He told police his dinghy was stolen and he spotted it alongside a neighboring yacht. The prince said he set out to recover it, taking his military rifle. Moments later shots rang out and 19-year-old Dirk Jeerd Hamer, on board another vessel, was hit in the groin and leg by a stray bullet. He died four months later.
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