US student tells Italian court of 'attack' by police officer he stabbed

Finnegan Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth are accused of murdering Italian officer Mario Cerciello Rega

A US student accused of murdering an Italian policeman has told a court he did not know his night-time attacker was a police officer and thought he was a drug dealer.

Finnegan Elder, 21, read an hour-long statement to the court in Rome, saying he wanted to tell his version of the July 2019 incident that led to the death of the police officer, Mario Cerciello Rega, during a drugs bust in the Italian capital.