Italian police officers said they wanted 2 American tourists who killed their colleague 'dissolved in acid,' say reports

• Two American tourists were sentenced to life in prison over the 2019 killing of an Italian police officer.
• This week, a police officer went on trial for using unjustified measures against one of the men.

Italian police officers exchanged messages about wanting two American tourists "dissolved in acid" after killing one of their colleagues, a court in Rome heard on Wednesday.

Finnegan Lee Elder and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, now 22 and 20, were sentenced to life in prison last May over the 2019 killing of an Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega.

Cerciello Rega, aged 35, was stabbed 11 times with US Marine-style combat knife by Elder while working undercover to retrieve a backpack stolen by the Americans after a botched cocaine deal.

On Thursday, Elder and Natale-Hjorth's appeals trial began in Rome.

This week, a separate trial also began for an Italian police officer charged with using unjustified measures in blindfolding Natale-Hjorth while he awaited questioning at a police station.

WhatsApp messages entered as evidence in court on Wednesday show police officers discussing seeking retribution against the two men hours after the killing.

In the group chat messages, published by the Italian newspaper La Corriere della Sera, police officers said that the Americans should be "dissolved in acid" and be given the death penalty, which does not exist in Italy.

In one message, police officers suggest the Americans should "end up like Cucchi," referring to a man who died in 2009 after being severely beaten in police custody.

Elder's mother Leah said that the messages "shine a light on the venomous environment that my son and the other boy were in those first hours" after the killing, The Daily Mail reported.

Their lawyers said that they believe evidence was "improperly evaluated" in the first trial and that they hoped for a better outcome from this appeal, the outlet reported.

At their trial, Elder and Natale-Hjorth, friends from San Diego, California, testified they were acting in self-defense against Cerciello Rega and his partner Andrea Varriale, who they believed were thugs.

Andrea Varriale testified that the two officers had identified themselves as police but were attacked by the American tourists anyway.