20 GIULIANI AND GAGGIO v. ITALY JUDGMENT moment two shots were fired from inside the jeep and the young man fell to the ground. The jeep drove over his body twice before managing to leave the scene. 86. All the available evidence, including M.P.'s statement of 20 July 2001 (see paragraphs 34-36 above), indicated that Carlo Giuliani's death had been caused by one of the shots fired by M.P. The investigating judge cited virtually the whole of that statement, in which M.P. spoke of his state of panic, the injuries he and D.R. had sustained and the fact that at the moment he pointed his pistol he had not seen anyone but had been aware of the presence of attackers because of the continuous barrage of stones. That version matched the statements made by D.R. and F.C. and those of other armed forces personnel and witnesses. In addition, the case file showed that M.P. had bruising and injuries to his right leg, his arm and the top of his skull; D.R. had scratches on his face and bruising on his shoulder and foot, while F.C. had a post-traumatic disorder treatable within fifteen days (see paragraphs 51-53 above). 2. The “intermediate object” theory 87. The investigating judge noted that the evidence in the file showed that the first bullet fired by M.P. had killed Carlo Giuliani. In exiting through the occipital bone in the skull the bullet had lost a fragment of its casing, as shown by the scan performed before the autopsy. This fact, combined with the characteristics of the entry and exit wounds, had led the prosecuting authorities' experts to formulate the theory that the bullet had collided with an object before hitting Carlo Giuliani. The entry wound had been very irregular in shape and the exit wound had been small, as was the case when a bullet had lost momentum and/or fragmented. 88. The bullet in question was an encased 9 mm parabellum, and therefore very powerful. This fact, together with the low resistance of the body tissue through which the bullet had travelled, served to confirm the theory advanced by the prosecuting authorities' experts. Moreover, a “tiny fragment of lead”, compatible with the bullets issued to M.P., had been found in the victim's balaclava with particles of bone attached to it. This suggested that the bullet had lost part of its casing before hitting the bone. 89. The simulated shots had revealed that the intermediate object which caused the bullet to fragment could not have been either the fire extinguisher carried by the victim or one of the bones through which the bullet had passed; on the other hand, it could have been one of the numerous stones thrown at the jeep by demonstrators. This appeared to be confirmed by the video footage showing a stone disintegrating in the air at the same time as a shot was heard. The fact that the sound and the disintegration of the object occurred simultaneously made the applicants' theory that the stone had smashed on impact with the roof of the jeep less convincing. Furthermore, the lead fragment in the victim's balaclava had borne traces of

Select target paragraph3