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| - An Italian mayor on Thursday called for "truth and justice" over the death of a UN volunteer and investigative journalist who had been on a peace mission in Colombia. Mario Paciolla, 33, from Naples in southern Italy, was found dead on July 15 at his home in San Vincente de Caguan in the country's south, a violence-racked region known to have been a strategic rearguard of the FARC rebels. "We embrace his family and assure them of our support for truth and justice," Naples mayor Luigi de Magistris said in a statement sent to AFP. Local Colombian authorities have said Paciolla, who was part of a United Nations Verification Mission, committed suicide. His mother Anna Motta refutes the claim. She has told De Magistris that her son was "worried about something he had seen, (or) heard", and he had determined to return to Italy. He had been due to travel the day of his death. Italy's foreign ministry said it was following the case "with the utmost attention" through its embassy in Colombia. De Magistris and rights associations have called for an investigation into Paciolla's death, warning that it risked becoming an unsolved case similar to that of slain Italian doctoral researcher Giulio Regeni, who was killed in Egypt in 2016. "It is obviously important that the facts are established and that the necessary investigations are carried out by the Colombian authorities," European Commission spokesperson Nabila Massrali said Thursday. "The EU is closely following the situation with the United Nations in Colombia", she said. kv/ide/cjo/cdw
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