The tourist who was filmed apparently carving his name into a wall of Rome’s 2,000-year-old Colosseum late last month has sent a letter of apology to the local prosecutor’s office, his defense lawyer told CNN on Thursday.
“I admit with the deepest embarrassment that only after what regrettably happened, I learned of the antiquity of the monument,” the alleged perpetrator wrote in his letter to the prosecutor, his lawyer, Alexandro Maria Tirelli, told CNN. The tourist’s name is Ivan Dimitrov, his lawyer told CNN.
The guy carved his real name into the facade, filmed himself doing it, and posted it to social media.
This is what lawyers refer to as “res ipsa loquitur” or loosely translated to “the thing speaks for itself”. Let the video play in court and case closed.
Got to love how these idiots just make it so easy. Hope the courts throw the book at him with maximum penalties.
Who cares how old it is (for the sake of this argument). Is it yours?! If not, don’t damage it!
Nah, I don’t own large businesses but i fully sport damaging them.
Value history not property.
That apology is so full of shit I can smell it from here. I hope the prosecutor sees right through it.
He’s looking at 5 years in prison. of course he’s gonna try to weasel out of it. I hope he goes to prison for the entire time. Desecrating a world monument is atrocious.
Where did you get 5 years?
The article and another comment mentioned only a fine and/or 15 days in jail 😢
CNN’s affiliate SkyTG24 and Italian state media RAI reported Wednesday that the tourist faces a fine of up to 5,000 euros ($5,400) and 15 days in jail.
the bbc is reporting 5 years. but yeah, i know there’s an inconsistency. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66121000
It’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for him.
For real tho who the fuck doesn’t know what the colosseum is?
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You also wernt standing infront of it at the time
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That’s kinda sorta how I feel about it. Kid is dumb, slap him with a fine. But the people who are very “rah rah throw him in prison” are intense. I understand that it’s a historically precious place from a bygone era, but I mean… The Romans themselves did this shit, maybe they’d be proud.
Time to reopen the Colosseum for its original purpose and throw that dickhead in with the lions.
This is the kind of shit that caused them to close the Chichen Itza from tourists.
Trial by combat 😂
CNN’s affiliate SkyTG24 and Italian state media RAI reported Wednesday that the tourist faces a fine of up to 5,000 euros ($5,400) and 15 days in jail.
That’s not nearly enough for defacing such a historically significant building.
If he didn’t know or if he did know and is now faking it, who the fuck cares? Charge his ass regardless. Not knowing is not a defense.
Weirdly enough CNN says he risks a 5,000 euros fine and 15 days in jail but the BBC claims he risks 15,000 euros and up to 5 years in prison
Damn, inflation has gotten worse than I thought.
All they should need to do is prove that he went through third grade or whatever his local equivalent is to disprove that. Not to mention the fact that he paid for the tour and managed to get that far.
I don’t know that this is something someone should go to prison for, because it’s not protecting anybody to put him in prison, but he should definitely pay for a very long time.
They are either profoundly ignorant or a damned liar. In either case, it doesn’t make them look good.
If he thought the building was unimportant enough that writing his dumbass name on it was nbd, what the fuck was doing wasting his time there in the first place? Why did he think all the other tourists were there?
Hope he gets made an example of, absolutely moronic. I don’t buy this excuse but even if it’s true it doesn’t absolve him of anything.
~~Name sounds Russian. If so, it figures. A society that, as a whole, appears to have quite he distain for other nation’s monuments and culture. ~~ Also, for someone so apparently ignorant to some of modern humanity’s greatest and most famous windows to our ‘ancient’ past, they write very well. Assuming it wasn’t their solicitor who wrote it for them to sign, of course.
And that would totally defeat the point of sending the letter.
Edit: I am very wrong about the nationality of the ‘alleged’ vandal.
Well you can delete most of that. He’s a Bulgarian guy who lives in Bristol.
Every single fucking summer there’s a brit who makes some damage to a monument in Italy. No wonder we consider them the worst tourists.
Or just the first sentence.
Can we not jump to conclusions
has sent a letter of apology to the local prosecutor’s office
Oh cool, a written confession - thanks for making it so easy for us - the cops
I mean, it was caught on video by someone that was there, saw him starting to do it, and recorded it. They don’t need a confession.
A better apology would be cleaning the whole structure with a toothbrush.
