1.
GV Crowds outside St Maria Degli Angeli church in Rome
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2.
CU PULL OUT TO SV wreaths
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3.
SV Italian President Sandro Petrini and Senator Amintore Fanfani arrive, get out of car and enter church
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4.
GV and CU Family listening to service (3 shots)
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SV PULL OUT TO GV priest speaking during service
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6.
SV Pertini and Fanfani in service PAN ACROSS TO coffin and family
1.15




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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Angry Italian magistrates suspended court sessions in Rome and Milan on Thursday (20 March), and held a protest meeting over the assassination of three of their colleagues by left-wing guerrillas in the past week. Their protest came on the same day as the funeral for Supreme Court Magistrate Girolamo Minervini, who was shot dead in a crowded Rome bus on Tuesday (18 March).

SYNOPSIS: The funeral was held in the church of St Maria Degli Angeli in Rome, and was attended by Italian President Sandro Pertini and Senate President Amintore Fanfani. Mr Minervini, aged sixty, was a deputy attorney general in Italy's high court. He was hit at least five times by two gunmen belonging to the "Red Brigades" group, who waited until his bus reached a stop before opening fire.

The suggestions put forward for the protection of magistrates included army patrols in the streets of Rome, more bodyguards and a data bank to amass computerised information about urban guerrillas. Ironically, the late Girolamo Mintervini dispensed with a bodyguard after his transfer to the Supreme Court, telling a friend that the anonymity of a bus was sufficient protection.